Powerless
by Princess Malika
Summary: Naruto's throwing a huge birthday party & invites all of Konoha. The next day, everyone discovers that they can't perform any genjutsu or ninjutsu! Who's behind this? Is it Naruto himself or someone else? Slight NaruHina, SasuSaku, and ShikaIno. - ON HOLD INDEFINITELY
1. Chapter 1: Rejected

**Author's Note: **This is a fanfic they my sister, Craftygirl, and I co-wrote together. We hope you like it as much as we enjoyed writing it!

**Disclaimer: **Craftygirl and I do not own Naruto in any way; we just write our own stories based on the characters and story line that Masashi Kishimoto created. So, all credit goes to him!

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Chapter 1: Rejected

_YOU ARE INVITED TO MY—NARUTOS—PARTE! _

Sasuke looked at the invitation Naruto just gave him… just a few seconds ago. _He sucks at writing; he forgot the apostrophe after his name and spelled party with an "e" instead of a "y"._

"So? Are you coming?" Naruto asked Sasuke, looking at him with hopeful eyes.

Sasuke replied by burning up the invitation.

Naruto could only gape as the ashes fell down to the ground. "Augh! Sasuke! Why'd you _do_ that?!" he demanded, "I spent an hour designing that invitation! Thinking of that phrase alone fried my brain!"

"That explains why you don't have any brain," Sasuke replied coldly, "Why waste the effort when you know I could care less about trivial stuff like…_this_?" He said the last word as if it was too painful just to mention.

"Because it's going to be my birthday!" Naruto explained. "And you and Sakura _have_ to come!"

"Then go ask her, not me—I'm not interested." With that, Sasuke left a fuming Naruto alone.

Naruto glared at his rival. _How dare that jerk Sasuke just burn up my invitation like that and then refuse to come to my birthday party? Who does he think he is?! _

He then looked down at the stack of colorful invitations in his hand. "Well, if Sasuke won't come, at least Sakura will be there!" Naruto told himself brightly, "I'm not gonna let Sasuke ruin my party. If he thinks he's 'too good' for me, he's wrong! _He'll _be the one missing out! And I don't care!"

And so, Naruto flounced off towards Sakura's house, a large smiled plastered across his eager face.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Sakura—instinctively thinking it was Sasuke—practically leapt to the doorway and opened it up.

Only to find an eager Naruto.

"Naruto!" Sakura furiously yelled, using her anger to mask her disappointment. "What are _you_ going here?"

Naruto's broad grin instantly faltered. "I-I'm here to invite you to my birthday party." Naruto shoved his invitation to her face, silently hoping that she'd accept it and come.

Immediately, Sakura softened—but only a little. Still… "Is Sasuke coming?"

Naruto knew _exactly_ where this conversation was going. Nervously, he replied with a meek, "Uh…maybe…?"

Sakura shook her head. "No," she said firmly, "If Sasuke's not coming, neither am I! You know me better than that, Naruto!"

"But, Sakura!" Naruto protested, "Who cares about Sasuke?! Besides, this way, he won't get in the way between us! You won't even have to think about him—"

Sakura's eyes flashed with fire. " 'Won't get in the way between _us_'?!" she repeated incredulously, "Naruto, there is no '_us_'! There never was, and there never will be! And how _dare_ you say I won't even have to think about him?!"

Abruptly, Sakura slammed the door in Naruto's face.

"Sakura!" Naruto shouted, but there was no response. Naruto stared at the closed doorway, willing it to open—willing Sakura to change her mind, but he knew her too well now.

Sighing, he moved on to the next person on his list.

Kakashi.

Knock, knock!

No answer.

Knock, knock!

No answer.

Pound! POUND!

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei! Open up! I've got something special for you!" Naruto exclaimed through the wooden door. "Kakashi-sensei!"

At long last, an annoyed Kakashi finally opened the door, Make-Out Paradise in hand. "What is it now, Naruto?" he asked, slightly irritated, "I was in the middle of a very exciting story…"

"Yeah, yeah! That's something I've never heard before!" Naruto said sarcastically, "Anyway, I have something really important to give you!" He handed him an invitation. "Well? _Well?_"

Staring at the invitation in disbelief, Kakashi questioned, "This is '_important'_?"

"Well… yeah," Naruto answered.

"More important than my Make-Out Paradise?!"

"_Yes_!!" Naruto was tired of everyone thinking his party—_his birthday party_—was 'no big deal'. It was!

Glaring at his student, Kakashi firmly stated, "Nothing is more important than my Make-Out Paradise…"

Naruto gulped. Kakashi was only one of the few people that intimidated him. Still, Naruto was eager for an answer. _Kakashi _has_ to come! How can he not? _

"Well?" Naruto persistently asked, "Are you coming?"

Kakashi smiled, and from his fake cheeriness, Naruto already knew the answer. "Let me put it this way: n-o," Kakashi spelt out, "No."

Though he saw it coming, Naruto still hung his head in despair. "…But…why not?"

"You took me away from reading my book. That's why," Kakashi told him matter-of-factly.

"That's all?!"

Kakashi simply nodded. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'd like to go back to my reading."

Pouting after Kakashi gently closed the door, Naruto slumped all the way to the next person he'd hope _would_ come.

"Oh, hello, Naruto," greeted Rock Lee, "What are you doing here?"

Naruto decided to skip right to the point. "Hey, Lee! Wanna come to my birthday party?"

Lee seemed taken aback by the sudden offer, but still seemed interested. "Your birthday? Really?" He thought for a moment. "Well, I guess. Why not?" He flashed his nice-guy pose. "Is Sakura coming?"

Immediately, Naruto imagined what Lee would say when he told him the truth: _"Uhh… she'll only come if Sasuke does, and since Sasuke refused…"_

_Lee's smile instantly transformed into a frown. "You mean she is not coming?"_

_Naruto sadly nodded. _

_Sighing, Lee regrettably said, "Then I am sorry to say that I will not, too." _

Naruto's usual cheerful spirit almost crumbled. _I can't tell him the truth! Or else he won't come too!_

Before Naruto could take it back, he finally replied, "Of course she's coming."

Lee's eyes lit up. "She is? Great! That is awesome!" he exclaimed happily, "I will be there, you can count on it!"

As Lee went back into his house and shut the door, all happy and giddy, Naruto couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt.

_Now what am I supposed to do? _He thought regretfully. _Lee's gonna expect Sakura to be there, but if she doesn't show up…he's gonna get mad at me. Darn it! The only way to win in this sort of situation…is to convince Sakura to come, which means convincing Sasuke first!_

But first I'll go to someone else, before I tackle that stubborn Sasuke… Shikamaru. I'll go see if he wants to come first.

Naruto had an easy time finding Shikamaru, as he was lying on the couch.

Being his typical lazy self.

"What brings you here?" Although just because Shikamaru was lazy, doesn't mean he wasn't sharp.

Naruto couldn't contain the excitement in his voice (even after being rejected by many others), "I was just wondering if you'd be interested in the biggest, coolest, and most awesome party Konoha has ever seen!" he raved, "My—"

"Birthday party, right?" Shikamaru finished for him, grinning, "Why am I not surprised?"

Naruto was surprised. "You know?" he asked, and then instantly jerked up, "So, you must be the only one who remembered my birthday, huh? Gee, Shikamaru, if only there could be more out there like you! Finally, someone who'll definitely say yes without any catch!"

"Uh, who said anything about my saying yes?" Shikamaru questioned, raising any eyebrow, "I'm not going."

Naruto—in shock—fell onto the floor, and then hastily stood up again. "W-why not?" _And_ _you better have a good reason…_

Shrugging, Shikamaru responded, "I just don't wanna get off this couch."

Shooting a death stare at Shikamaru, Naruto practically exclaimed, "_That's_ your excuse?!"

"And everyone else gave you a better one?"

That pushed Naruto over the edge. _Okay. That's it! I'm not gonna let him get away with this! _"What are you talking about?!" Naruto demanded through gritted teeth. "They didn't have excuses! And that's because they didn't say no! My friends are all coming! All of Konoha's coming! Believe it!"

Shikamaru just scoffed. "Um, yeah, right…" he replied, "Not only are you a bad liar, but you're hopeless, too."

"I'M NOT LYING!!!!!"

"You just did."

_That's it. I give up… no one will come to my—wait! I've got it! _

Without a goodbye, Naruto left Shikamaru to his couch and sprinted to his new destination. _Hinata won't reject me. She's too nice to—_

Suddenly, he spotted her carrying a square box, all wrapped up. But he only took a glance at it and didn't pay much attention, because he was too hyped up at the fact that Hinata would be the first person that wouldn't reject him.

"Hey, Hinataaaaaa!" Naruto shouted from the distance, waving his invitations in the air. "Hinata, wait up!"

The quiet blue-haired girl suddenly looked up to see Naruto, her crush since the days they were both in the Academy. Her cheeks immediately flushed red. "N-Naruto…" she began, but couldn't get the words out of her mouth.

When Naruto finally caught up to her, he presented her with an invitation. "Here you go, Hinata! Come to my birthday party tonight, okay?"

Hinata glanced at the invitation, with its messy "_YOU ARE INVITED TO MY—NARUTOS—PARTE!" _sprawled across the paper in big fat letters. But instead of criticizing it like Sasuke had, Hinata was speechless.

Naruto scowled. "Huh? What's wrong?" He suddenly had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. _Oh, no! Not Hinata, too! She's the last person on the planet who'd I have thought would pass up on coming to my birthday party!_

But that was the opposite of what Hinata was feeling at the moment. She was speechless because Naruto had invited _her_! But Hinata didn't want to sound like a total idiot by being all grateful that he'd put her on his invitation list…

So she remained silent, even though she so very badly wanted to say something to him, whose doubts only increased.

I was a fool to think Hinata would come to my birthday party… what was I thinking? She probably has 'something better to do', too…

Sighing, Naruto miserably strolled back to his house.

And that made _both_ him and Hinata feel like they were…

Rejected.

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**A/N:**

Princess Malika: Don't be deceived; the main point of this story is NOT based on Naruto and his b-day party. We just wanted to start off this fanfic with lots of humor—Tee-hee!

Craftygirl: Like we mentioned in the summary, this fic is all about everyone losing their powers! So…ya'll haven't seen nothing yet! You'll just have to read and see for yourselves!

_Please read and reply! We would gladly accept any questions, comments, or constructive criticism! Thanks!_


	2. Chapter 2: Disappointment

Chapter Two: Disappointment

_What should I get Naruto? _Lee asked himself and then frowned. _I wished that he would not had asked me at the last minute… _

After spending almost an entire minute pondering what Naruto would want, he finally said to himself, _I know! I will go ask Sakura. Knowing her, she already has something for him. And maybe—seeing her gift—I will get an idea of my own._

And that's exactly what Lee did.

As soon as he knocked on the door, Sakura—thinking it was Sasuke again—dashed towards the front of the apartment and eagerly opened the door.

Yet who she saw surprised her. "Lee? What are you doing here?"

"Sakura, I need help choosing a present for Naruto," Lee explained.

"Oh," Sakura muttered, "Well, why are you asking me? I'm not going."

Rock Lee was devastated. "You…are _not_?!" he repeated in disbelief, his voice dripping with obvious dismay.

Sakura didn't see why Lee was so shocked. _Doesn't he know that I wouldn't go anywhere near Naruto unless Sasuke's around? _

"Lee," Sakura began before launching into an explanation: "He invited me at the last minute."

Sakura didn't want to tell Lee the _real_ reason as to why she didn't want to go; knowing Lee's nice guy personality, he'd put her on a guilt-trip.

"Well, he invited me at the last minute, too, but I am more disappointed to find out that he lied to me."

_Sounds like the Naruto I know, _Sakura thought. "Well, I'm sorry," she apologized half-heartedly. And though it was pointless, she couldn't help but ask: "But are you still going to get him a present?"

Lee's eyes burned with fire. "No! I am not!" he replied indignantly. _That is the last time that Naruto will make me look bad in front of Sakura! He will regret this!_ _How could he just lie to me so I will come to his party! _"In fact, he can cancel me from his list, because I am not going!"

As Lee stormed back to who knows where, Sakura wondered…

_Is _any_one going to Naruto's birthday party? _

By the time the sun had set and the moon shone brightly in the sky, a lonely Naruto lied on his couch with his arms laced behind his head, staring at the white ceiling. As long as no one was going to come to his birthday party, Naruto decided that he'd be depressed.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door… But Naruto was too miserable to even notice it.

Knock, knock!

"Is it just me, or did I hear someone knocking on the door?" Naruto asked himself dazedly, the sound finally beginning to register in his mind.

Knock, knock! Knock!

Naruto suddenly bolted up from the couch. "It's not just me; someone's really knocking on my door! I'm not dreaming!" he exclaimed, the energy returning to his voice. He quickly fastened his ninja headband to his forehead and then bolted for the door.

"Iruka-sensei?"

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!" Iruka enthusiastically exclaimed with a broad grin, in his left hand a semi-large rectangular orange box tied up in a greenish ribbon.

"You came! You _remembered_!" Naruto excitedly shouted through teary eyes. _I thought everyone forgot, but I can always count on Iruka…_

Strolling into Naruto's apartment, Iruka set down the gift on a table before he'd responded, "Of course I remember! That's why I came, right? And where's the rest of the people you'd invited?"

All of the excitement Naruto had felt just seconds ago instantly drained away. He stared down at the ground. "…They're…not coming…" he replied in a low, impassive tone.

Iruka instantly sympathized. "I'm sorry, Naruto," he said sincerely, placing a reassuring hand on his former pupil's shoulder. "But hey, look on the bright side. The two of us can chow down on ramen the whole night." He held out the orange rectangular box for Naruto. "It's your favorite: miso pork ramen fresh from the Ichiraku."

"Really?!" Naruto gasped, and when Iruka pulled the ribbon off and took off the lid, Naruto almost _screamed_ with exhilaration!

"Thanks, Iruka-sensei!" Naruto joyfully yelled, doing a jump-hug that almost made Iruka drop the ramen.

Iruka smiled widely as Naruto practically skipped in his kitchen.

"I'll go get the chopsticks," Naruto offered (as Iruka was the one holding the ramen).

Naruto—in his moment of happiness, had forgotten about why he was ever depressed in the first place. But while he was enjoying Iruka's company and the ramen…

Sasuke was silently debating with himself whether he was a bit too harsh…

Fresh from training in the woods for, Sasuke silently walked along the dirt roads of the village. His hands in his pockets, he felt a small twinge of guilt for his earlier actions. _Maybe I was too harsh on Naruto… And maybe I shouldn't have burned up his letter…_ He then came face-to-face with Naruto's apartment building. Glancing up, he noticed a bright light emitting from Naruto's room.

Sasuke scowled. _The guy's got no friends… and I've got nothing else to do. Maybe I should just go… _And so, with a shrug, Sasuke finally decided to go to Naruto's party.

But before Sasuke could knock on the door…

"Sakura?"

She was even more shocked: "Sasuke?"

"Sasuke?" Lee repeated in surprise, appearing from behind Sakura. "Sakura said you were not coming."

_How should I explain myself? _Sasuke pondered and, before even coming up with an answer, Sakura suddenly asked, "Shikamaru? You too?"

"Hn. I was bored," Shikamaru replied dully, and then asked, "But why are you guys all here? I thought everyone turned him down."

They all shrugged. Apparently, everyone seemed to have no real reason as to why they came…

"…Well, now that we're all here…who's going to knock on the door?" Sakura suddenly asked, holding on to her neatly wrapped present.

There was a moment of silence. For some reason, nobody felt like knocking either.

"Um, why is no one going to knock?" Lee piped up, breaking the silence.

"I told him I wasn't coming," Sakura answered, and then firmly added, "I _don't_ want him to get the wrong idea."

Sasuke remained silent while Shikamaru grew impatient. "What a drag," he muttered irritably, "If none of you are gonna knock, move out of the way and let me do the honors." He shoved past everyone and then knocked loudly on the door.

At this time, Iruka and Naruto were merrily having an eating contest. "Whoever can eat the most ramen the fastest without throwing up wins," Iruka had said, and Naruto had accepted that challenge.

As soon as the door knocked, Naruto leapt out of this chair. _It has to be the others; the ones I'd invited before. I bet they'd changed their minds. _

"I win!" Iruka victoriously declared as Naruto dashed to his door. Although as he was about to open it, he begin having second thoughts… _Wait, even if they _did_ change their minds, why should I let them off the hook so easily?_

Naruto only had a second to make up his mind.

And he chose to open the door anyway, tackling all of his friends at once with a squeezing hug!

Everyone had his or her own reaction…

Well, first, all four of them instantly tore away from his death hug.

Sakura jumped back three feet away from Naruto. Brushing off her clothes with one free hand, she snapped, "What was that all about, Naruto?! Next time, give us a five-minute warning so I can get away!"

Shikamaru sighed. "What a drag," he mumbled yet again.

Sasuke folded his arms. "Took you long enough…loser," he jeered with a scoff.

"Well, are you surprised to see us, Naruto?" Rock Lee piped up.

"Of course! All my friends are here!" Naruto enthusiastically exclaimed and was about to give everyone another 'death hug' when his friends—expecting it this time—hastily took one large step away, making Naruto grab empty air and—as his face showed surprise—he fell onto the ground!

"Are you okay?" Lee asked as Sakura and Shikamaru rolled their eyes and Sasuke scoffed.

"Never better!" Naruto responded, instantly standing up without any help from Lee. Nothing could ruin his mood now.

Well…

"Where's Kakashi?" Iruka questioned the group, finally coming outside to see who came. "And Hinata?"

Naruto looked around expectantly. "Y-you mean they're not here yet?" he asked dejectedly, the sudden realization finally kicking in. He hung his head in despair. So much for nothing being able to ruin his mood…

"Don't let it get to you, Naruto," Iruka began soothingly, "I'm sure they'll be here any moment. Don't worry about it. They would never miss something as special as your birthday party."

_Special? _Naruto thought bitterly. _Is that what he calls it? Is that what anyone thinks? …No… None of my friends wanted to come to my party in the first place… A guilt trip probably won them over in the end. No one wanted to come to my birthday because they thought it was "my special day." _Yet in the end, Naruto could only say, "Yeah, I'm sure they won't."

**

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****A/N:**

Princess Malika: This makes me sad… :( It seems that Naruto is getting dissed at every turn (tear-tear)! And you're probably wondering, "When will the title start matching the story?" Soon everyone! Real-real soon.

Craftygirl: Oh, I don't care if he gets dissed! He's not my favorite character! In fact, I'm quite glad I wrote that last part. Ha-ha! …Okay, maybe I am being a little cruel. Sorry, Naruto!


	3. Chapter 3: Surprises

**A/N:** Oops... Both Craftygirl and I forgot to mention that while we're writing the fanfic to the original timeline of the Naruto series, in this fanfic, Lee is uninjured.

Just so you know.

**

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**Chapter Three: Surprises

Hinata had stayed hidden—only about a block away from Naruto's apartment—even after she'd seen everyone else join Naruto back inside.

_I want to go…to join everyone else—especially Naruto… but…_

Hinata looked at the gift she planned to give Naruto that was so neatly and so carefully wrapped in orange in her square box. _Will he even like what I'd chosen for him? What if he doesn't? I don't think I can—_

Someone suddenly tapped her on the shoulder, and Hinata spun around in surprise. In the process, she accidentally dropped the present. But when she saw who it was, she instantly calmed down. "Oh! It's you! A-aren't you one of the jonin?"

Kakashi bent down to hand her the present she'd dropped on the floor. "Yeah," he replied, "Sorry I startled you." He handed the gift to her. Hinata took it back and held it close, now more cautious to not let it go.

"So…why aren't you there with the others?" Kakashi motioned behind her toward Naruto's apartment building, where everyone was gathered on the second floor balcony.

Hinata slightly blushed, because going _there_ meant going to Naruto, basically.

At least, to her, it meant that.

"M-maybe," Hinata responded. _I so want to, but… what if—_

"Then let's go together then, shall we?" Kakashi suggested, to which Hinata only nodded once before letting Kakashi take the lead.

And the closer they'd approached Naruto's apartment, the redder Hinata got! _I'm glad it's dark, so this jonin can't see how red I am, but what am I going to do once Naruto opens the door?! He can't see me like this!_

Kakashi's thoughts were entirely different than Hinata's: _I hope Naruto doesn't mind that I didn't get him anything. Maybe he won't notice. He's not the brightest of the bunch. Then again, this girl's got him a gift, and that might remind him of me giving a gift to him. Then again… _do_ I have anything in my pocket that can be a gift?_

He rummaged through his pocket, but found nothing…except Make-Out Paradise, which he would never, _ever_ give up. _Guess I've got nothing to give then. Oh well. Naruto won't mind. At least, I think he won't. I'll just say that I left it at home._

By the time they reached the door, Kakashi raised his arm to knock on the door. But before he could, he noticed a pair of eager eyes peeking from behind the blinds of the window. The next thing he knew was a very ecstatic Naruto flinging the door open with a dumbfounded Kakashi and timid Hinata hiding behind him.

"You came! You came! I'm so glad!" Naruto raved, jumping up and down wildly. "I thought you'd both forgotten! But Master Iruka was right! You _did _remember about my birthday!"

Suddenly, Naruto noticed something… "Where's my present?" he asked Kakashi.

"I left it at home."

"Why?"

"It's too big to bring over here."

"Ooh! What is it? What it is?!"

"If I tell you, it'll ruin the surprise."

"Can we go over to your house now so I can go and get it?"

"But what about your guests?"

"…You're right. I guess I can wait till tomorrow."

_Whew! I'm off the hook… for now…_ Kakashi said to himself before he strolled right on in Naruto's apartment without permission.

Hinata remained outside.

As Kakashi walked inside, Naruto—who was still standing by the door—was about to shut the door until he turned around and noticed Hinata still standing outside. "Oh, Hinata!" he exclaimed, startled, "I almost forgot you were there! Watcha doing waiting outside? C'mon in!" He moved aside so she could go inside.

A slight blush spread across her pale face. "N-Naruto…" she squeaked, her hands trembling as she gripped the present tightly in her arms. _Should I give him the present now or wait until I get inside?_

Naruto raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Huh? What is it?"

Hinata held the gift out in front of her, which was wrapped perfectly in bright orange tissue paper. "Here," she said at last. "Happy birthday, Naruto." She forced a meek smile.

"Yay! You brought me a present!" Naruto enthusiastically exclaimed before rapidly ripping the wrapping paper open.

Next, Naruto opened the also matching orange-colored lid to the box, which revealed a gardening tool—a spade, in which the handle was also orange—and a row of various kinds of seeds.

"Ohh cool!" Naruto joyfully shouted. "Now I can decorate my entire apartment with all these different kinds of plants!"

Seeing Naruto's broad smile made Hinata grin widely. "I'm glad you like it, Naruto."

"Thanks sooooo much!" Naruto gratefully yelled before giving Hinata an unexpected hug!

The embrace caught Hinata off-guard, and the next thing she knew was that she was blushing up a storm, especially when she noticed the others staring from the dining table inside.

"Poor girl," Sakura remarked aloud in sympathy, "If only Naruto would notice how she feels about him. He's so clueless that it's actually quite sad."

Shikamaru scoffed. "Naruto's such a lost cause," he said dully, "He's clueless about _everything_."

Eventually, Naruto managed to get Hinata inside the house, and they both joined Iruka, Kakashi, and the other Genin at the table.

The first thing Naruto noticed was a tall and thin box sitting on top of the table next to Sakura. "Hey, Sakura!" he exclaimed loudly, pointing at the orange box, "Is that for _me_?"

Before Sakura could respond, Naruto eagerly tore up the orange wrapping and opened the lid.

He gasped.

"Well, what is it?" Lee curiously questioned.

Naruto replied by crying tears of joy.

Everyone stared at him in disbelief.

"It's instant cup ramen! Thanks, Sakura!" Naruto appreciatively said to her before he gave her a warm hug, too.

Only to be immediately shoved off.

"Get off me, Naruto!" Sakura barked hotly.

Naruto seemed to disregard her distaste. Instead, he just held the gift up like a prized trophy. "Oh, Sakura! How'd you know I loved ramen?"

Sakura couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Lucky guess?" she replied sarcastically.

"Well, thank you! I'll savor it to the very last bite!" Naruto reassured her, smiling broadly, "You're the best, Sakura!"

"Uh, sure…" Sakura replied listlessly.

Hinata tried not to get Naruto's words of praise for Sakura get to her, but she couldn't help but let out a slight frown. _He thinks that… Sakura is the best? Although… I guess I can see why… she's so much more confident than I am. _

Knock-knock-knock!

"Yay! More people!" Naruto excitedly yelled before sprinting to the door.

Sakura's eyes widened in surprise before she said to herself, _"I wasn't aware that Naruto was inviting anybody else…" _

To Sasuke, Sakura asked, "Do you think all of Konoha's coming?"

Sasuke shrugged.

Yet she didn't need to ask, because as soon as the words left her mouth, the front door flung open and hundreds of "happy birthday's" bellowed throughout the small apartment room.

Everyone at the dinner table stared out the door in surprise.

"Whoa. Naruto has really outdone himself…" Rock Lee muttered in awe.

"Since when did _Naruto_ get so popular?" Shikamaru wanted to know. "It's as if the whole village is standing right outside his door!"

Sasuke answered Shikamaru's question to himself: _Maybe everyone just wanted to come together for a party._

As Sasuke, Shikamaru, Rock Lee, Sakura and Hinata, pondered the crowds of people pouring in by the second, Iruka explained, "I told all the jonin and chunin about Naruto's birthday party today, and I'm presuming they all told their genin about it. I even told the Academy about it."

_No wonder, _Shikamaru said to himself before he sighed. _What a drag. Now I won't be able to get any peace and quiet. _

Everyone else had his or her own thoughts…

Hinata:_ Now I won't get to spend much time with Naruto… _

Sasuke: _Oh great… _fan_girls…_

Lee: _Where is Guy-sensei?_

_Arg! Why did _she_ have to come?! _Sakura fumed as Ino suddenly appeared…

Right next to her beloved Sasuke, too!

"I _thought_ I'd find you here, cutie!" Ino stated flirtatiously, wrapping her arms around Sasuke's neck.

Sasuke just glared at her, hoping she'd get the message that he wanted her to back off. _Fangirls… I knew they'd come. Darn them!_

Of course, Sakura was furious. She suddenly stood up from her chair and pointed a threatening finger at her rival. "Ino-pig!" she cried, "Get your dirty self _off_ Sasuke!"

Ino simply stuck her tongue out at Sakura, which only made her grab Sasuke's left arm and pulled Sasuke to her side, succeeding in freeing him from Ino's grasp.

_Cha! He's mine! _InnerSakura triumphantly declared in her thoughts, but Ino only glared at Sakura before placing a firm grip on Sasuke's right arm and yanked him right back to her!

"He's mine!"

"He's mine!"

"He's _mine_!"

Sasuke sighed. _Why me? _

As Rock Lee observed the all-out war before him, he couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealously. _Why does Sakura care so much about Sasuke? What does he have that I do not have? _

But he didn't have to be jealous for long—at least, not when Guy-sensei walked in through the door.

He moment he saw him, his eyes lit up. "Guy-sensei!"

"Lee!"

Lee ran up to his teacher's open arms and they exchanged a loving, tearful hug. Of course, the remaining Iruka, Kakashi, Shikamaru, and even Hinata felt a bit uncomfortable and disturbed by the emotional display.

_Do they _always_ have to do that? _Shikamaru wondered as Lee and Guy continued their greeting…

"I'm so glad you could make it!" Lee joyously exclaimed, to which Guy replied, "As long as _you're_ here, Lee, I wouldn't miss it for anything in the world."

Guy's respond made Lee blissfully teary again. "G-guy-sensei…"

"Lee…" Guy-sensei said, also crying tears of joy…

Before they both embraced each other—again! Kakashi ignored the scene as he read his Make-Out Paradise.

Shikamaru sighed._ What a drag. Do they have to do it _again

Meanwhile…

Kiba—instead of going through the crowded doorway like everyone else—made a dramatic entrance by leaping through the window.

"Hey, Kiba!" Naruto greeted, his delight increasing with each familiar face he saw.

"Naruto, I don't smell any food. Where's the food? I'm starving!"

Naruto gasped. "The food! I completely forgot about the food!"

Hastily, Naruto dashed into the kitchen to quickly begin preparing—by himself—enough food to feed all of Konoha!

* * *

**A/N: **Princess Malika: Yay! Now everyone's here! And I'm so glad Naruto's happy… So, even though the ending's a bit weird and rush-rush, for all those impatient for the main part of the story to start happening… it's gonna happen… at the next chapter! 

Craftygirl: Yeah, we have been stalling a bit, but we're gonna reach the main plot in the next chapter. Just wait and see!


	4. Chapter 4: Accusations

Chapter Four: Accusations

The next morning…

Sasuke suddenly blinked his eyes open to see a white ceiling staring back at him. A bright sun streamed in from his window, and he turned over to stare out at the sky. The sun shone high overhead. _Morning already? …How long was I asleep?_

He sat up straight in bed, and glanced at the analog clock that hung on the wall across the room. _It's nine o'clock now, and I'm way behind schedule. I was supposed to have started training four hours ago. _

Sasuke sighed, pulling off the blue sheets. _What a party… I didn't get home till three in the morning. Oh, well; might as well start training now._

Sasuke finally got out of bed, but the moment he stood up, he suddenly noticed a nauseous feeling in the pit of his stomach. _That's funny… I could have sworn I was feeling fine just a second ago._

He tried to ignore it, but his attempts were in vain, and pretty soon, he found himself making a wild dash for the bathroom.

About fifteen minutes later…

_There, that's better… should've known not to trust Naruto's cooking… oh well, time for some major training now, as I have a lot of catching up to do, _Sasuke concluded before changing out of his pajamas, grabbing a kunai, and heading outside.

In time, he reached a vacant forest clearing. _Let's start off with enlarging my Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu…_ Sasuke swiftly summoned up his chakra, but he could feel something was off.

Yet the feeling—although worrisome—wasn't actually causing any sort of anguish, he simply disregarded it, slightly opened his mouth, and blew, automatically expecting an inferno of flames to burst out. Yet nothing did!

Sasuke furrowed his brow in confusion. _What?! Why isn't it working?! _Panic began to envelope him, a strange and foreign feeling he hadn't experience since his first encounter with Orochimaru in the Forest of Death a few months ago. _What's wrong with me?!_

Sasuke tried again, forming the exact same hand signs he'd practiced all his life. He closed his eyes, deep in concentration. _Okay! I can do this!_ Then, he opened his eyes, drew in a deep breath, and blew…

…Only to see the same result.

A terrifying chill began to run up Sasuke's spin. _My Fireball Jutsu isn't working! What if…What if none of my jutsus work?! _The frightening realization was more than Sasuke was willing to accept, and he remained determined.

First, he tried to activate his Sharingan eye by focusing his chakra to his eyes, but apparently—just like with his Fireball Jutsu—he couldn't feel the slightest presence of his chakra. So, in a last-ditch moment of desperation, he bent down slightly and tried to gather chakra in his left hand.

_Come on! Come on! _Sasuke gritted his teeth in frustration when no blue sparks of chakra came into view. Just like his other two jutsus, his chidori had now failed him, too.

Sasuke finally resigned himself from trying any more jutsus. Instead, he just stared at his now-trembling hands in horror. _W-why is this happening? I can't feel my chakra flow… What's going on? Why do I feel so…powerless?_

By now, panic was overwhelming him, and all of a sudden, Sasuke felt small and meek…just like when Itachi had rendered him helpless five years ago…

Sasuke shoved that thought aside. _…I…I've got to calm down and think straight… Let's see… Just yesterday, I was performing my jutsus just fine… That is, before Naruto's party…_

Suddenly, something clicked in Sasuke's mind… _That's right… it was only today, _after_ Naruto's party, that I've lost the ability to perform ninjutsu! Unless something—or someone—did something to me while I was asleep…_

Sasuke quickly brushed that possibility aside. _I'm a light sleeper; I would've _known_ if someone did something to me in my sleep. So the only possible conclusion is… Naruto…_

His eyes flamed in fury at the thought of his teammate's name… _It must've been his cooking. Who _knows_ what he put in it? _

With a fiery determination to get his ninjutsu back, he rapidly rushed towards Naruto's apartment.

Before abruptly stopping in his tracks. _Wait… if the cause of my lost ninjutsu is due to Naruto's cooking… then could it be possible that _other_ people at Naruto's house lost their ninjutsu, too? _

At Sakura's… 

Alone in her room, Sakura stood in front of her dresser and tied her Leaf Village headband on top of her pale pink hair. _There._

She tried to smile at her reflection in the mirror, but couldn't. She sighed. _Ever since this morning, I haven't felt so good…_

She raised her arm and placed her hand on her forehead. _Ugh. I'm starting to burn up a little… This isn't good. _

_Aw, man! And I was planning to go to Sasuke's apartment today!_

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door, but Sakura didn't feel like answering it this time. "Could someone get that, please?" she hollered.

Sakura stepped away from her mirror and slightly opened the sliding door of her room. Sticking her head out the door, she tried to see who was at the front door.

"Sakura, it's Sasuke! He wants to talk to you!"

"Sasuke?" Sakura's eyes glimmered with hope. Abruptly, all of her energy seemed to return as she happily bounded over to the door. "Hey, Sasuke! What's up?"

Unfortunately, Sasuke _wasn't_ as cheerful as Sakura was, which made her wide smile falter a bit.

"Sasuke… what's—"

"I'm going to try and punch you."

"What?!"

"And you're going to try a substitution jutsu to avoid it."

"Wait, Sasuke, what's this all about?"

"Just do it." Sasuke's impatient and serious tone of voice made a reluctant and utterly baffled Sakura obey.

Positioning herself a good few meters away from Sasuke, she hollered, "Ready!"

Sasuke stared at her for a moment. "You want to stand all the way over there?"

"Well, yeah!" Sakura insisted, "C'mon, Sasuke! Hit me with your best shot!"

Sasuke shrugged. "Okay, you're asking for it," he said dubiously. He formed a tight fist in his right hand, and then fell into a fighting stance. "Here it comes."

Sakura braced herself for the attack. When Sasuke charged at her, she quickly performed the simple hand signs needed to perform the jutsu. Sasuke then thrust his arm out in a swift, powerful punch. "Take this!"

What happened next was completely unexpected. Instead of vanishing in a puff on pink smoke with a log in her place, Sakura felt the full force of the blow collide with her forehead! Before she knew it, she flew across the front hallway, and then crashed through the sliding door of her room.

Sasuke drew his arm back, scowling slightly in regret. _Uh…that went well…_

He gave her a moment to get out of her room, but when he didn't hear any trace of movement, he decided to go in after her. Sliding open the now-ruined door, he said her name softly, "Sakura?"

He was about to say more, until he noticed the state she was in: on her back with her legs and arms raised and twitching, her eyes glazed over with a small stream of drool dripping down her mouth, a ring of stars encircling her head, _and_ a huge bruise on her forehead.

"Ow…" was all a very dazed Sakura could say.

Sasuke winced. _Okay…maybe I overdid it…_

Tentatively, he walked over to her. "Hey, uh, are you…okay?"

"Of course I'm okay! Why wouldn't I be?" Sakura immediately answered with a strained smile on her face, getting up instantly, before letting out a forced-out laugh.

_Darn, that hurts! Why did Sasuke hit me so _hard_?! Furthermore… why didn't my substitution jutsu work?! _

Of course she only said all of this to appear "tough" in Sasuke's eyes, but he could easily see through it.

There was this enormous forming bruise on her forehead. Yet instead of pointing it out, Sasuke stated, "This confirms that I'm not the only one that lost my ninjutsu."

"Wait, what do you mean that you lost your ninjutsu?"

Sasuke didn't want to get into the details. "When I woke up this morning, I couldn't use my Fireball Jutsu, my Sharingan, _or_ my Chidori," he summarized, "And that's never happened before."

Sakura—though still confused—thought about it for a moment. "How odd," she remarked, "Those are all chakra-based jutsus…"

Sasuke nodded. "When I was attempting my jutsus, I felt this strange absence of chakra. I can't describe it, but I'm sure you felt it, too…just now."

Sakura tried to think back to when she tried to perform her substitution jutsu. "Huh… I didn't even stop to think about that, but now that you mention it, I have to agree," Sakura stated. Her brow furrowed in apprehension. "But what do you think this means? Does it really mean that we can't perform ninjutsu anymore? That's crazy! This has got to be a temporary ailment or something!"

"I-I don't know," Sasuke replied, trying to sound calm and cool, but that was the exact opposite of how he was feeling at the moment. _I _want_ to believe this to be something temporary—something that's no big deal… But I can't… It _is_ a big deal, and until we get to the bottom of this, who knows what'll happen next? What if we never get our ninjutsu back?_

The same sense of panic began to creep up on Sasuke again, but he refused to succumb to it. He opened his mouth to speak, but Sakura cut him off.

"Hold it," she began, "Didn't you say you couldn't use your jutsus since this morning?"

"Yeah. They worked fine just yesterday."

"But that means that…"

Sasuke nodded. "Uh-huh. Naruto."

Sakura immediately frowned. "But why would Naruto cancel out our ninjutsu?"

Sasuke shrugged. "Maybe he was jealous of our progress or something."

"That's not the Naruto we know!"

"Is it?"

Sakura frowned yet again. …I want to believe that Naruto wouldn't do something like this… but it's happening to us right now, and it only happened after the party, and the only thing that could've affected us at the party was the food, and Naruto was the one cooking the food…

"But what if he's just such a bad cook? I mean, he _did_ cook it kind of fast, and so—" Sakura provided.

"It _still_ means that Naruto's the cause of our inability to perform jutsus. And since it's true… I say we pay a visit to Naruto."

Sakura wanted to protest, but couldn't get the words out of her throat. _There's no harm in paying a visit to Naruto, but how are we supposed to explain this to him? We can't just go to his place and accuse him of robbing us of our ninjutsu. Besides, I can't imagine him pulling off something so cruel…_

In the end, all she could say was: "Okay, I guess."

By the time they reached Naruto's apartment, both Sasuke and Sakura were surprised that no one answered the door.

"Maybe he's still asleep?" Sakura suggested.

"It was ten o'clock when we left your house," Sasuke stated, "Naruto never sleeps in late." He scowled, a wave of anger rising in his voice. "He's probably run off to hide so no one would come looking for him."

Sakura bit her lip. "We don't even know if he did it, Sasuke," she replied softly, quickly losing confidence in her own words.

Sasuke glared at her. "Well, what do you think?" he asked impatiently, "_Who else_ could have done it but Naruto? All the facts point to him. Sure, there were a lot of people at the party—practically the whole village showed up—but he was the only one that prepared the food. You and I both know that, Sakura. And I know we don't want to blame Naruto, but what other choice do we have?"

Sakura stared down at the floor, unable to meet Sasuke's eyes. Though she didn't want to admit it, she had to agree with him in every way.

Sasuke sighed in irritation, and then raised his fist to knock on the door once more.

Still no answer.

"Let's just go home, Sasuke," Sakura said, "If he's not home, there's nothing else we can do."

But Sasuke wasn't about to resign himself to going home just yet. He wanted his ninjutsu back, and he was determined to get to the bottom of this. Instinctively, he lowered his hand to the doorknob and turned it slowly. Though he didn't really expect it to be unlocked, he turned the knob and was surprised to find that the door actually opened.

Sakura let out a gasp. "Sasuke!" she whispered, "What do you think you're doing?!"

Sasuke held a finger to his lips. "I need some answers," he explained in a low voice, opening the door wider as he stepped into Naruto's house.

Elsewhere, a steadily increasing crowd of livid villagers began to form…

But, meanwhile…

Someone was having…

Err, problems…

_Darn! Why does my stomach hurt so much? Must've been the food I cooked yesterday… I _did_ cook it kinda fast… _

Crash!

_What was that?! Is someone trying to break in my apartment?! Wait… that noise came from the inside of… that means that someone is actually _in_ my apartment!!!!_

Hastily, Naruto finished his bathroom business before quietly grabbing his plumber to ward off whoever was in his house.

In the meantime… 

A small potted plant smashed to the ground with a loud _crash_ that seemed to resonate throughout the small kitchen.

Sasuke instantly glanced back at the sound of the crash, only to see Sakura standing next to the fallen plant, whose pot had shattered into a couple dozen pieces. "Shh!" he hissed. "We've got to be careful! He still might be at home!"

Sakura winced. "Sorry," she whispered back. _Naruto's such a mess, though, and after last night's party… this whole place is like a landmine. Just one wrong step, and you could set off an explosion—I mean, who puts a fragile potted plant on the edge of a countertop next to the front door? _

Suddenly, the bathroom door burst open with Naruto standing in the doorway, waving a plumber threateningly in the air. "Okay! Okay! Where are you, trespasser? C'mon! Show yourself! And just what do you think you're doing in my house?!" He tried to sound brave, but it was quite clear that he was panicking on the inside.

Sasuke scowled. _Oh, great… Busted… _

Sakura just stared at Naruto blankly. "Naruto?"

"Huh?" Naruto asked, dumbfounded. Though he had glanced around the kitchen quickly, he had somehow failed to manage his two teammates standing right across the room from him. "Oh, it's you guys!"

"What are you two doing here? Have you seen the trespasser?" Naruto continued.

Sasuke was resolute not to answer any of Naruto's questions till Naruto answered his, but before he could interrogate Naruto…

"Wait! Are _you_ two the trespassers?!" Naruto finally realized, gaping at them in shock.

"You shouldn't have left your door open for us to simply walk in then," Sasuke defensively said.

Naruto shot Sasuke a heated glare, which Sasuke returned with equal fury. Before Sakura could intervene, Naruto practically shouted, "Well can you blame me? I was all excited for my birthday and people kept coming in and out and in and out and I didn't know when everybody left so I just left it open in case anyone wanted to come back and party some more and—"

"QUIET!!!!!" Sakura yelled, which shut Naruto up pretty quickly and allowed Sasuke to have a chance to ask Naruto his questions—the whole point of coming to Naruto's apartment, anyway.

"What did you do that made us lose our ninjutsu?" Sasuke bluntly asked, which Sakura thought sounded more like an accusation than a mere question.

Frowning in bafflement, Naruto replied with a question: "What are you talking about?"

"What he means…" Sakura began—before Sasuke said anything rash, "Is that—since this morning, we lost the ability to perform any jutsus, and—since our ninjutsu worked last night—we were wondering if… well, if you had anything to do with it."

"Huh? You lost your jutsus?" Naruto repeated, even more confused than before. "What? Okay, back it up. What the heck are you guys talking about?!"

Sasuke scoffed. "I don't know if you're just playing dumb, but I guess it couldn't have been you. After all, you're too stupid to pull off a stunt like this," he remarked coldly.

Naruto glared at his rival. "Too stupid?! I'll show you who's too stupid!" He was about to lunge for Sasuke, but Sakura stepped in between the two before a war could break out.

"That's enough," she stated flatly. "Both of you, cut it out." She then faced Naruto, looking him straight in the eyes. "Now tell us, Naruto: do you have any idea what could have happened at your party last night that could have robbed us of our ninjutsu abilities?"

"No!" Naruto insisted, "What makes you think I know anything about this thing in the first place, Sakura?"

"Because _you_ must have done something to our food that keeps us from using our chakra," Sasuke blurted.

Sakura shot Sasuke a look of disapproval, but it was already too late. The full wait of Sasuke's words slowly began to sink into Naruto's mind.

At first, Naruto had thought they were just messing with him, but now he knew. They were dead serious about losing their ninjutsu abilities, and they were accusing him for it.

"Well, if you think I had anything to do with your guys' problem, you're wrong! I didn't do anything to the food! Honest!" Naruto insisted, trying desperately to convince his friends that he was innocent. "I'll admit that my cooking isn't the best, but I don't have any idea about what you two are talking about with this 'losing your jutsus' thing! I don't even know how to do that sort of stuff! And even if I did, why would I?!"

It was the same question that Sakura had asked herself so many times, but still couldn't find a good answer in Naruto's defense. She decided to remain silent, but not Sasuke; he a good number of reasons against Naruto. Yet before he could open his mouth to attack him, a horde of irate villagers crowded in through Naruto's front door.

At the front of the group was some of his friends: Kiba, Shikamaru, and Ino, followed by Chouji, Rock Lee, Shino, Neji, TenTen, and Hinata. All of them wore frowns on their faces, and at that moment, they seemed like they wanted to attack Naruto as well.

Kiba: What did you do to our ninjutsu abilities?!

Shikamaru: Something happened at your party, Naruto! One moment I'm fine, and the next, I can't perform my Shadow Possession Jutsu!

Ino: The whole village is here, Naruto! And we want some answers!

Naruto stared at them, all the angry faces. Everyone in the whole village was mad at him and Naruto wasn't even sure why. He felt like the whole world hated him, despised him just for being who he was—just for being the vessel for the nine-tailed fox. The way they all looked at him with such hatred…it made his spine tingle with an all-too-familiar sorrow. Just when he couldn't bear it anymore, he turned to face Sasuke and Sakura for support, but they just looked at him the same way the rest of the villagers did. They, too, were accusing Naruto of a crime he knew he didn't commit. But there was no way he could get them to believe him. And—just like he had in the past—Naruto felt completely alone.

* * *

**A/N: **

Princess Malika: I love the beginning of this chapter… so many LOL! But I don't like the end! I didn't _write_ the end! I'd _never_ put Naruto through such torture… (tear, tear!) TT Anyways, for all of you who were impatient for the main point of the story to finally happen… it did! So, who do you think it is?

Craftygirl: Well, I _loved_ writing that last part! 'Course I feel bad for Naruto, but I just loved how that final paragraph summed up everything and even brought back dreaded past memories. Well, I don't have much else to say. Hope you liked this chapter, though! It was a lot of fun to write (e.g. the Sasuke punching Sakura part. LOL.) As always, please R&R!


	5. Chapter 5: Mystery

Chapter Five: Mystery

"Do not blame Naruto for your misfortunate. Instead, you all should _thank_ him." Lee abruptly said, cutting through the tension-filled air and utterly shocking everyone.

"_Thank_ him?!" TenTen repeated in disbelief before adding, "Why in the _world_ would we want to do _that_?!"

Grinning broadly, Lee replied, "Because now you can all practice your taijutsu—and _only_ your taijutsu! This should be great!"

Might Guy placed a strong hand on his pupil's shoulder. "You said it, Lee!" he replied fondly. _Now how will it feel, Kakashi? To lose your precious Sharingan? We'll see who's stronger now…_

TenTen glanced at them spitefully. "Easy for you to say…" she muttered. _Now I won't be able to use my weapon summonings!_

Ino felt like yanking out her hair in aggravation. "This is horrible!" she wailed. "Who knows how long this will last? What if we can never use our ninjutsu abilities again?! We'll be ruined!" She glared at Naruto once more. "…Thanks to a certain someone."

Naruto only hung his head in shame, and this, of course, made Hinata sympathize. She fiddled with her fingers nervously. _I-I want to say something in Naruto's defense…but I don't know what… I don't think Naruto could ever do such a thing, but what proof do _I_ have?_

And while Hinata chose to remain silent, Iruka couldn't help but speak up: "Hey, quit blaming Naruto for something you don't even know is his fault!"

The room instantly silenced, and everyone glanced at him in shock.

"How do _you_ know?" Ino disputed, "What _proof_ do you have?!"

At first, Iruka was at a lost for words. Ino sneered, and was about to continue on her vicious venting when Iruka abruptly pointed out, "You say that you've lost your ninjutsu, right? Well, then Naruto must've lost his ninjutsu, too."

_Huh? What? I don't _want_ to lose my ninjutsu, too! What are you _doing_ Iruka-sensei?! _Naruto exclaimed to himself, panicking.

Frowning, perplexed, Ino responded, "Why would _Naruto_ make himself lose his ninjutsu, too?"

"Because he _wasn't_ the one that took away _any_one's ninjutsu," Iruka steadfastly countered.

"Fair enough," Shikamaru said to Iruka before turning to Naruto. "Try to do your Shadow Clone Jutsu. If you can't, then we'll apologize."

Glaring at both Shikamaru and Naruto, Ino heatedly shouted, "I'll _never_ apologize!"

"Just do it," Shikamaru ordered Naruto, ignoring Ino completely.

"Uh…okay," Naruto said apprehensively. _Oh, great. What now? If I perform the jutsu, and it works, everyone will continue to put the blame on me, but if the jutsu fails…will that mean I've lost my ninjutsu abilities, too? No! I don't want that to happen._ He scowled, but decided to go through with it. Forming the appropriate hand signs, Naruto waited, concentrating on his chakra to successfully execute the jutsu. But instead, he felt a strange absence of chakra…as if he had none.

Naruto began to freak out. "What? How come my jutsu's not working?!" he asked no one in particular, the panic rising in his voice.

Iruka managed a small smile. "I knew it; Naruto's innocent after all," he declared.

Hinata smiled as well. _Naruto…I'm so glad…_

"_WHAT_???!!! NNNNOOOOO!!!!!" Ino screeched, and then began to shake Naruto! "Don't make me look like a fool! DO IT!!!! I _know_ you can do it! Do your stupid Shadow Clone Jutsu! Just do _some_thing!" _I don't want to apologize to _Naruto_… _

"_Quit_ it Ino," Sakura firmly stated, glaring at her. "You've got your proof, so apologize already."

Glowering back evenly, Ino snapped—after dropping a dizzy Naruto on the ground, "Why _me_?! I'm not the _only_ one that blamed Naruto, you know?"

"You're right," Shikamaru said, responding to Ino, before turning to Naruto and apologized: "I'm sorry, Naruto."

"We _all_ are," Kiba added, and Akamaru barked in agreement.

"I speak for all of Konoha when I say that we are all truly, sorry indeed," Lee apologized.

Naruto, now recovered from Ino's harsh shaking, reminded Lee, "Why are _you_ apologizing? You weren't against me…"

Lee sheepishly smiled. "That is right… Oh well, now that we have got _this_ settled, who is ready for some taijutsu training?"

"That's the spirit, Lee! Use the power of your youth!" Guy agreed fervently, flashing his cheesy nice-guy pose. He pointed towards the door, where the crowd had already begun to dissipate. "Let's go!"

Neji and TenTen exchanged unsure glances before tailing after their team.

And though while most of the village had left Naruto's small apartment, a few still lingered, including Ino, Shikamaru, Kiba, Hinata, Iruka, Kakashi, Sasuke, and Sakura.

Ino folded her arms, still as stubborn as ever. "Okay, well if it wasn't Naruto, then who the heck stole our ninjutsu?!" she demanded indignantly. "Tell me that!"

Everyone left in the room was left stunned. None of them had thought about that, and now that Ino had brought it up, they all wondered the same thing, but couldn't quite come up with an answer.

Naruto was proven innocent, but the verdict was still not clear. At that moment, everyone was thinking the exact same thing: _If not Naruto, then _who?

* * *

**A/N:**Craftygirl: You probably saw it coming, huh? Of course Naruto couldn't have done such a thing…right? …Or could he? I'll leave that up to you guys to think about—I'm not spoiling any surprises! 

Princess Malika: …I do _not_ know what to write! Except that this chapter was definitely shorter than the others (I _so_ apologize, as making it shorter than any other chapter so far cuts deeply), but how to stretch out a chapter that's just based on apologizing to Naruto? Anyway, can you guess who's the culprit???


	6. Chapter 6: Arguments

Chapter Six: Arguments

Kiba was the first to speak. "I think it's… never mind…"

"If you have a guess, then _tell us_!!!" Ino yelled, grabbing Kiba by his gray jacket.

Kiba glowered at her. "Lemme go, woman," he snarled, in which Akamaru started growling in his owner's defense.

There was an intense staring contest between Kiba and Ino before Ino eventually let go, yet she still shot him death stares.

"So?" Sasuke impatiently asked, in which Kiba finally revealed—hesitantly, "I think it's Orochimaru."

There was a brief, chilling silence before Shikamaru shot the idea down. "It can't be. We would've _known_. Think. If Orochimaru walked through the door and sat down on the couch, we would've _seen_ it."

"He's got a point there," Sakura voiced out. _Unless…_

"But what if…he used a transformation jutsu?" she asked hesitantly, glancing at everyone in the room.

"He's unable to use his hands now," Kakashi brought up, paused, then added, "After the Third Hokage's… sacrifice…"

Once again, everyone was deathly silent, but this time, it wasn't due to fear…

It was due to the grief for a great father figure they all looked up to from time to time, yet can never see again.

"Okay, if it wasn't Orochimaru, then who?" Naruto asked—to nobody in particular, trying to get everyone to not think about that moment in time all over again.

"Well, I know this might strike you as odd, but I suspect the aid of Kabuto Yakushi," Kakashi said after a moment.

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura gasped in surprise.

"What?! Kabuto?! Are you serious? But…_why_?" Naruto just couldn't get himself to believe it.

_What's Kakashi-sensei talking about? Kabuto's not a bad guy! If it weren't for him, we never would have gotten out of the Forest of Death alive!_

Sakura had similar thoughts… _I agree with Naruto. What _reason_ would Kabuto have to work with… a despicable character like Orochimaru? _"Yeah sensei, why?"

Sasuke was the only one whose thoughts were slightly different. _…Kabuto _was_ a bit suspicious in the Forest of Death, but to say he might be helping Orochimaru…_

As Kakashi looked into the faces of his students, all three of them skeptical, and as everyone else stared at him like he was crazy, Kakashi quickly flashed his typical smile and answered to both Sakura and Naruto, "No reason."

I'm_ not even sure why, but I won't let him off the hook that easily, but I'll keep this to myself—for now. I can see that no one else is ready to believe me unless I have proof. _

Shikamaru sighed. "Back to stage one…"

"_I_ wouldn't be so quick to say that!" Ino snapped. "Sure, Naruto might not have stolen our ninjutsu _on purpose_, but what if he did it _unintentionally_?"

Sakura glared at Ino. "Oh? And what makes you think so, Ino?" she retorted, even though she was curious as to what Ino had to say.

Shikamaru shot his teammate a disapproving look. "Just give it a rest, Ino," he said under his breath.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked uncertainly, already hating how she had shifted the blame back on him again. _Why does everyone always blame me for everything?_

"I mean, maybe you did something to the food on accident, like…" Ino thought for a moment, "Perhaps you added some strange ingredient to the recipe without knowing it. And maybe that's what took away our ninjutsu!"

"That's crazy!" Sakura shot back. "As if Naruto would know how to do that! Even if by accident, where'd he get the ingredients to cook up such a thing in the first place?"

"I don't know!" Ino spat, throwing her hands up into the air, "But at the progress we're making, I'll take anything sensible! Besides, what have _you_ got to say, Sakura?! Who do you think did this?!"

"I don't know, either, but it _can't_ be Naruto. We already have gone over this!" Sakura resolutely disputed.

"No we haven't. Just because _he_ can't do ninjutsu, doesn't mean it wasn't _his_ fault."

"Then that makes _everyone_ in Konoha a suspect as well!"

"Not _every_one; they didn't tamper with the _food_!"

Sighing, Shikamaru stated, "Just drop it, Ino."

"I just can't 'drop it'; _some_body is responsible for removing our ninjutsu, and I want to know _who_!"

"We're not getting anywhere by whining, complaining, and putting the blame on people," Sakura told her calmly, "The best thing we can do now is search the house for clues."

Ino looked at her in horror. "If you think _I'm_ gonna get on my hands and feet searching this poor excuse for a house, you're out of your mind!" she protested. "I'm outta here!" She glanced at Sasuke. "Ya coming?"

Sasuke shook his head. _No way am I going anywhere with _her_… Besides, I've got to stay and find out who did this…_

Ino scowled, but left it at that. "Fine," she stated, and then turned to leave the house.

"It's about time she left," Sakura said coldly as soon as Ino was out of sight.

"Can we search the house now?" Sasuke piped up impatiently.

"Well, I'm going home now," Shikamaru said dully.

Naruto looked at him. "What? Why?"

Shikamaru shrugged. "I'm not into this sort of mystery type of thing. It's a boring waste of time. Just let me know what you guys find."

Shikamaru strolled in the direction that Ino was in. He caught up to her in only a few seconds, and that's only because she was waiting for him…

Waiting to _scold_ him, that is…

"WHY DIDN'T YOU STAND UP FOR ME???!!! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE ON _MY_ SIDE!!!! We're teammates, and teammates have got to stick—HEY!!! WHERE DO YOU THINK _YOU'RE_ GOING???!!! DON'T TRY TO WALK AWAY FROM _ME _NOW!!!!!" Ino shouted at Shikamaru, who was walking right pass her.

Ino dashed to Shikamaru's side, yelling, "ARE YOU EVEN _LISTENING_ TO ME???!!!"

"…What did you say?"

"ARUGH!!!!! Don't you even _care_ that our ninjutsu is gone?! That whoever took it is _still out there_?! And that we might _never get our ninjutsu back_?!"

"Well, of course I care," Shikamaru told her matter-of-factly. "But instead of freaking out so much and blaming Naruto, you should know that they're a lot of other people other there that could have done it. It's not fair for you to just say he did it without any proof. Sure, he's a suspect, but anyone could be…even you."

Ino was appalled. "Even me?!" she repeated incredulously. "Shikamaru, are you out of your mind?! Why would I ever do something like this?!"

Shikamaru nodded. "Same thing goes for Naruto," he reasoned, "Why would _he_ do something like this?"

Ino was at a lost for words as her fierce arguments quickly evaporated. "I…" She suddenly felt a pang of guilt for blaming Naruto. _This must have been how he felt…_ She stared hard at the floor.

Shikamaru smirked. "That's exactly what I thought," he said, a twinge of haughtiness in his voice. He then resumed his walk home.

Ino glanced up for a second to see Shikamaru walking away. "Shikamaru! Wait!"

To Ino's surprise, Shikamaru lingered, as if waiting for her to say what she _loathed_ to say, but must. So, reluctantly, the words tumbled out of her mouth. "I… I'm… s-sorry… a-about… you know…"

Now it was Shikamaru's turn to be stunned. _Ino _never_ apologizes… _Knowing how difficult it was for Ino to admit she was wrong, then apologize for it, Shikamaru's mouth formed a slight smile and replied, "I accept your apology."

"…Thank you…" Ino responded—almost in relief—before she said to herself, _Wait, I can't go all soft on Shikamaru… I've got a rep to uphold! _

So, Ino abruptly added, "Now it's _your_ turn."

"Huh?"

"Apologize!"

"…For what?"

"For not siding with me when—"

As Ino continued her nonsense and continuous 'speech', Shikamaru once again tuned her out and shook his head in disappointment. _I should've known… Ino will _never_ change…_

So, not wanting to go into another circular disagreement yet again, Shikamaru began strolling in the direction to his house.

"HEY!!!" Ino snapped, glaring daggers at him, "COME BACK HERE!!! I'M NOT THROUGH WITH YOU YET!!! YOU JUST CAN'T LEAVE WHENEVER YOU WANT TO!!! ARUGH!!!!!"**

* * *

A/N: Craftygirl: Aw! Princess Malika totally slaughtered their little "moment" at the end when Ino suddenly…you know what I'm saying. ShikaIno is my second favorite Naruto pairing, but I guess you've got to keep them IC, and any "moments" to a minimum, esp. since this is _not_ a romance fic.**

**Princess Malika: Yeah! I GOT to keep in IC! Yes, this is NOT a romantic fic, and no, ShikaIno is NOT a couple I like; to me, they just don't fit together… but as this is NOT a forum of which pairing works, let's get back on track… I apologize for the weird, kind of cut-off ending (how else am I suppose to end it, anyway?). Anyways, ready for the next chapter (I know I am! )?**

**Craftygirl: _Excuse me_, but ShikaIno is a beautiful couple! (Though not as beautiful as SasuSaku) Just for the record, Princess Malika is a ShikaTem fan, so of course she'd say that! And by the way, they're the ones who don't go well together! …Sorry, I just had to say that. LOL.**


	7. Chapter 7: Caught

Chapter Eight: Caught

Meanwhile back at the house… 

"We'll work best if we split up," Kakashi instructed, "Iruka and I'll check the kitchen, Naruto and Hinata can check the bathroom, Sasuke and Sakura can check the bedroom and veranda, and Kiba and Akamaru can check the outside."

Naruto glanced over to where Sakura stood next to Sasuke. _Aw, man! I wanted to work with Sakura!_

Hinata blushed slightly. _I'll be working with Naruto, then?_

Sakura couldn't help but feel a little giddy, too. _Sasuke and I, huh? This is too good to be true! If only Ino stayed long enough to see this!_

So, with everyone in their content thoughts (well, _most_ of them), they all split up and began the search.

"Byakagan!" Hinata exclaimed instinctively, doing the usual hand sign to active her bloodline trait.

Except nothing happened! _I forgot… _Hinata said to herself in disappointment, _I can't do any chakra-based techniques anymore… _

Naruto noticed Hinata's dejected expression, and his typical smile faltered. He was hoping to find _some_ clue to clear his name, instead… _Uh-oh, I hope she doesn't point the blame at me, like everyone else has. But can I blame her? And everyone else? Maybe Ino was right… maybe I _did_—accidentally—do something to the food, and, somehow, when everyone ate my food, they lost their ninjutsu._

He was about to say something to cheer Hinata up, thinking it was the least he could do, when his stomach suddenlygrumbled. He groaned, clutching his stomach in ache. _With all that has been going on, I haven't eaten _anything_ yet! Must… have… my… daily… dose… of… ramen… _

Drooling, Naruto suddenly announced to Hinata, "I'm going to grab a bite to eat. I'll be right back."

He rapidly left, yet abruptly returned and—as an afterthought—asked her, "You want me to get you something, too?"

Hinata's frown instantly transformed into a slight smile. "Yes, please."

Naruto swiftly departed, and Hinata decided to search the bathroom by herself. _I know we're suppose to do it together, but I'll do him this small favor my doing it myself. He's been through so much already, and—_

She suddenly caught sight of the toilet…and felt like barfing.

For inside the toilet was nasty…putrid-brown…diarrhea. Hinata held her hand up to her mouth in a last-ditch effort to keep herself from puking. She then noticed how the air reeked as if Akamaru had just done his business in front of her face when she was sleeping (which _did_ happen a few times in the past). But this was much worse. Finally, she could bear it no more.

And fainted.

As for Sasuke and Sakura… 

Sasuke opened the bedroom door, and was surprised to be greeted by a clean room. _It seems Naruto's room is a lot cleaner than he is in person…_ He strolled in, and began to check on top of the dresser, then opening the drawers and emptying out its contents.

Sakura scowled a little. "Sasuke…do you think you should be dumping out his clothes like that?" she asked softly. "I mean—"

"We came here to search for clues," Sasuke interrupted, "And that's exactly what I'm doing. Why don't you go search the bed or something?"

Sakura knew she couldn't argue with Sasuke, so she just did as told. Walking over to the bed, she lifted up the pillow and blanket, but didn't find anything. _If Orochimaru were behind this hoax, I'm sure they wouldn't leave such obvious clues… And even if it was Kabuto—like Master Kakashi said—I'm sure he would be careful not to leave behind anything that would make us suspect him…_ Sakura knelt down to look under the bed, but found nothing there either.

She glanced over in Sasuke's direction. "Found anything yet?"

Sasuke gritted his teeth in irritation. "Nothing!" he replied, turning over a calendar hanging on the wall. "Just keep looking!" _There's gotta be something in this room that'll point out the culprit! Naruto's _whole house_ was filled with people yesterday! The one who stole our ninjutsu could very well have laid foot in this room!_

"R-right," Sakura stammered, turning away to resume searching.

Five minutes later, the two had checked every space in the room and veranda. "I can't believe there's nothing here!" Sasuke exclaimed, clearly frustrated. "We searched everywhere and couldn't find anything!"

Sakura fanned herself with her hand. _It's getting really hot… Don't tell me my fever's starting to kick in again… _"It's alright, Sasuke," she told him, "I'm sure the others will have found something."

Sasuke glanced at her, and was about to say something but stopped when he got a good look of her. "Are you okay?" he asked her suddenly, raising an eyebrow, "You seem really flushed." _Don't tell me all that searching left her exhausted… That's pathetic! It was just a mere five minutes!_

"I'm o—" Sakura began, but unpredictably got a wave of nausea! Her knees buckled, and she was about to collapse when Sasuke immediately caught her in his arms.

"T-thanks," Sakura gratefully said, and Sasuke detected the obvious frail tone in Sakura's voice. _…This is not an everyday weariness… and she feels kind of warm, too. She must be coming down with something. _

Gently, he helped her onto Naruto's bed. Sakura was surprised at Sasuke's sudden concern for her. _He really does care… but I have to show him I'm stronger than this. _"Sasuke, I'm fine now."

"No, you're not," Sasuke decisively responded, leaving no room for Sakura to dispute with him. "Take a rest for awhile. I'll give Kakashi a report on our… lack of evidence."

Circling the house, sniffing for anything unusual, Kiba and Akamaru finally stopped on their fifth round.

"Smell anything unusual?" Kiba asked Akamaru.

"Woof!"

Kiba frowned. "Nothing, too?"

"Woof!"

Kiba sighed in disappointment. _Aww man, I wanted to _find_ something! Wouldn't that be cool?_ "Well, let's go back and tell everyone what we _didn't_ find."

While Iruka searched the kitchen table, Kakashi carefully inspected the countertops. And something caught his eye…

"There's nothing strange on the table," Iruka concluded after a moment. "Found anything unusual yet?"

"I think…" Kakashi ran his index finger along the countertop, and picked up scant traces of a black powder.

Iruka walked over to where Kakashi stood. He squinted his eyes at the counter, and noticed the black powder on the counter. "What is it?"

Kakashi held it up to his nose and sniffed it. "Well, it's not pepper, that's for sure," he replied.

"Do you think it's…?"

Kakashi nodded. "This could very well be the clue we're looking for," he said. "Now we'll just have to tell the students."

Pound! Pound!

Kakashi and Iruka exchanged glances. "I wonder who that could be," Kakashi said to no one in particular. He and Iruka strolled over to the door and opened it, only to be greeted by an angry Gaara.

_What's _he_ doing here?_ The last time Kakashi saw Gaara was when he was battling Sasuke in the final battle of the Chunin Exam. Back then, he was powerful, yet heartless. Kakashi had no idea if he was still that same person.

"Can we, uh, help you?"

"Where's Naruto?!" Gaara demanded.

Iruka—though he didn't know anything about this kid—suddenly went on the defensive, "What do you want with Naruto?"

"Tell me where he is!"

"AAGH!!"

Back inside the house… 

Naruto exploded into the kitchen. "Hey, Iruka-sensei, Kakashi-sensei, did you find any—" He skidded to a stop when he noticed that neither of them was in the kitchen. He darted his eyes across the room. "That's odd. I could've sworn they said they'd search the kitchen!"

He glanced at the closed door leading to the outside. "I _do_ remember hearing a knock on the door just a second ago," he recalled, "Maybe they went to answer it." Naruto approached the door, but stopped short when his stomach grumbled. "Uh, maybe I'll eat some ramen first."

He turned around and got the kettle off the table. Then, he walked over to the sink, filled it up, and placed the kettle on the heated stove. Naruto took a step back and scowled, folding his arms. _And now I'll have to wait a whole five minutes until the water boils!_

That's when he noticed something on the counter. _Uh-oh, gotta get rid of this!_

With a Chunin and Jonin in each hand, Gaara abruptly wrenched Kakashi and Iruka outside Naruto's apartment.

The door closing behind them.

"I won't tell you where he is unless you tell me what you want with him!" Iruka countered evenly.

Kakashi added, "Can you also let us go?"

Gritting his teeth in fury, Gaara dropped them and impatiently said, "Watch."

The two Jonins intently watched Gaara—about a foot away—as he gradually lifted both his arms, outstretched.

Iruka: _…What is he doing? _

Kakashi: _Oh no! Is he about… to do _that

As Gaara was about to form his hands into fists, Kakashi instinctively reacted and punched Gaara in the chest, sending Gaara ricocheting _through_ the railing!

And then plummeting to the ground!

Gaping at Kakashi, Iruka yelled, "WHAT DID YOU DO _THAT_ FOR?!?!"

"He was about to do his Sand Coffin attack on us."

"His _what_?!"

Iruka's eyes were still focused on the poor twitching kid, his gourd shattered… the sand surrounding the body like a pool of blood…

"When he does his arm and hand movements like that, it means that he's about to let a massive—"

"Never mind," Iruka interrupted before leaping off the unbroken part of the rail and then landed onto the ground, feet first.

Kakashi sighed before following after him.

"Are you okay?" Iruka asked Gaara, gently helping him stand up.

Gaara shot Kakashi a lethal stare. "If you'd _waited_, you would've seen that I _couldn't_ attack you."

Both Iruka and Kakashi blinked in bewilderment.

"What do you mean?" Kakashi asked, inquiring to know more.

"Ever since this morning," Gaara began, still seething from all the misfortunate events happening to him, "A similar thing happened…"

In his mind, Gaara replayed the humiliating incident that happened earlier…

_"Ready?" Kankuro hollered to Gaara, who was about fifteen meters away._

_And as Gaara said nothing in response, Kankuro rapidly unleashed his puppet, Crow, at Gaara._

_Temari was watching a few yards to the side, impatiently waiting her turn._

_The Sand Siblings were doing some morning training, and Kankuro and Temari were trying to improve their attacks._

_And what better way to practice by using Gaara's impenetrable Sand Shield?_

_Gaara stood still, his arms crossed, as usual._

_Typically, Gaara's sand comes to his defense automatically if anything threatened to harm him._

_So nobody was expecting what'd happen next…_

_WHAM!!!_

_Temari and Kankuro gaped at the sight in shock._

_Gaara flat on his back!_

_The Crow right on top of him!_

_"GET IT OFF ME!!!!!" Gaara shrieked, stunned that his "ultimate defense" didn't work._

_Instantly, Kankuro and Temari dashed towards him. Kankuro immediately yanked Crow off Gaara, and then Temari helped Gaara up, simultaneously asking in bafflement, "Why didn't your Sand Shield come to your aid?"_

_"I don't know!" Gaara snapped, his irritable mood mostly due to his alarm that his always-comes-to-his-defense Sand Shield wasn't there for him._

_"Maybe it was just a fluke," Kankuro presumed. "So, if we try to attack you again, then maybe this time, it'll—"_

_Scowling, Gaara routinely waved his arm, as if calling the sand to smash into his older brother and sister._

_Instinctively, Temari and Kankuro flinched and braced themselves, thinking that they'd soon be flung into the air._

_A few moments passed…_

_Both Kankuro and Temari took a peek…_

_Nothing happened!_

_"WHAT'S GOING ON??!!! WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME???!!!" Gaara furiously bellowed._

_Putting her quick-thinking mind to work, Temari asked, "When did this happen?"_

_"Just now!" Gaara snapped, "Didn't you see?"_

_"It can't have just… not worked all of a sudden," Kankuro said before pointing out, "It worked fine yesterday, before you went to Naruto's birthday party."_

_"That's it!" Temari exclaimed, snapping her fingers together. "You were fine until after coming back from Naruto's party! Did anything unusual happen at the party?"_

_"…No… but now I know what might be the source of my Sand Shield unable to work."_

"What similar thing?" Iruka questioned after awhile when Gaara didn't continue, snapping Gaara out of his thoughts.

"It's not important," Gaara quietly replied before adding—in a louder tone of voice, "But what is important is that I have to see Naruto… now."

"You still haven't told us why," Kakashi reminded him.

Not wanting to explain much, Gaara glared at the bothersome Chunin and Jonin, and said, "It just has something to do with Naruto's birthday party yesterday. And since it has something to do with Naruto, I need to speak with him."

Iruka and Kakashi exchanged knowing glances, both already thinking the same thing.

When they returned to the apartment, Gaara—now limping as a result of his fall—suddenly asked, "He is in there, right?"

"Of course," Kakashi reassured him, and then opened the door to find Naruto.

Standing at the same counter that had the black powder. A white damp cloth in hand.

* * *

**A/N:**

Craftygirl: Suspicious, isn't it? But…since I said I wasn't going to spoil any surprises, I'll leave you readers in suspense. Anyway, I'm still laughing over that Gaara scene! This is probably our funniest chapter yet! I feel sorry for him, sure, but it was just so funny! ROFL. And I'm glad that Sasuke and Sakura finally got their moment!

Princess Malika: Does anyone think it's Naruto now? Or is anyone still holding out for some other person? I agree with Craftygirl that this is probably THE most LOL chapter—yet! I love Gaara, and I know it's so mean to torture him like that—and definitely OOC—but how would one react when losing their ability to do anything chakra related—especially someone as powerful as Gaara? As for the little SasuSaku moment… I may've written it most of it, but it doesn't mean that I enjoyed it (just not a fan of them)…


	8. Chapter 8: Suspicions

Chapter Eight: Suspicions 

Sasuke, Kiba, and Akamaru arrived on the scene simultaneously, in unison with Gaara, Iruka, and Kakashi who all entered back into the kitchen.

It took only a few seconds for Naruto to notice everyone all around him.

"Hey guys," Naruto greeted chirpily, wringing the white damp cloth in his hands, the leftover water dripping onto the sink.

Both Kakashi and Iruka stared at Naruto in shock.

"Naruto…" Kakashi began, as Iruka was still staring at Naruto, openmouthed and speechless, "Did you just—?"

"Hey Gaara, what brings you here?" Naruto asked, interrupting—and seemingly ignoring—Kakashi.

Gaara just glared at him. "You should know," he stated furiously, gritting his teeth in anger.

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"

"He's talking about losing his ninjutsu," Kakashi cut in.

Naruto set the now wrung-out cloth aside on the countertop. "He is?" He averted his glance to Kakashi. "And how do you know?"

Kakashi cleared his throat. "That's not the point," he said, sparing he, Iruka, and most importantly, Gaara, the humiliating incident. "The point is…"

Iruka shot him a disapproving look. _We don't know if it was Naruto for sure!_

Yet Kakashi just disregarded him. "We're wondering what you were doing at that spot with a damp cloth." He pointed to the counter where the black powder had once been.

Sasuke, who had stood outside the kitchen door this whole time, furrowed his brow. What the heck are they talking about?

_By the look that Jonin is giving Naruto… _Kiba said to himself, cracking an amused grin, before adding, _He's about to get busted! _

Naruto, bewildered, blinked before he questioned, "What do you mean? I was just—"

"I don't care if you were cleaning the kitchen or not; _I_ just want to know what you did with my ninjutsu!" Gaara frustratingly interrupted.

Naruto frowned. _Even _Gaara_ blames me! And I thought he'd be one of the few people to understand, as we both had an understanding back at the Chunin Exams… _

Meanwhile, as Naruto was lost in his thoughts, Iruka decided to explain to Gaara what he and everyone else had gone through earlier today.

And as Iruka was explaining to Gaara, Kakashi continued to try to find out if Naruto was as guilty as he appeared to be.

"Naruto," Kakashi began, "As you were saying?"

Snapping out of his sorrowful thoughts, Naruto was slightly baffled. "Huh? Where were we?"

"What were you doing with that cloth in your hand?"

"Duh. I was cleaning something up."

"_What_ were you cleaning?"

Kiba rolled his eyes and Sasuke scowled in impatience. _This is getting is _no_where!_

"Something at the counter."

"What _thing_?"

This time, Naruto retorted, "What do _you_ want to know for? Why are you asking me all of this, anyway?"

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. _Why is he reacting… so defensively? And why is he not being specific? Is it because he's the culprit? Hmm…_

"We'll finish this later, Naruto," Kakashi concluded, and then turned to face Iruka. "Why don't you go join Iruka for some ramen or something?"

Iruka glanced at Kakashi in surprise. "What?"

Though Iruka was confused, Naruto was practically jumping on his toes. "Ooh! Ramen! Okay! Sounds good! Let's go!"

Seeing as to how Naruto was so cheerful and happy now, Iruka couldn't help but smile a little. Still, he whispered to Kakashi: "What are you up to? Bringing up something as trivial as this so suddenly?"

"We have to get Naruto out of here so we can discuss…" Kakashi lowered his voice, "The Issue."

Iruka didn't know what to say. "Are you saying we're going to talk about Naruto behind his back?!" he asked in disbelief, almost a little too loudly. Fortunately, Naruto didn't hear.

Kakashi ignored his question. "We need you to distract him. Meet us back here in an hour, alright?"

"But…" Iruka then found himself with nothing left to argue. He sighed, and then dejectedly replied with, "Okay… Fine…"

Yet of course, this looked very suspicious to the fellow Genin watching nearby (minus Naruto, who was too busy cheering, and Gaara, who was too busy glaring at Naruto).

Sasuke: _Why are they whispering to each other? Is it that big of a deal? What's going on here?!_

Kiba: _I wish I could change the strength of my nose to the strength of my ears. _

"C'mon Naruto," Iruka said, opening the front door and then holding it open, "What do you want me to buy you? The usual?"

"Miso pork! Miso pork!" Naruto chanted in eagerness as he headed out the doorway.

Iruka smiled widely and was about to follow Naruto outside—who was already heading in the direction of the Ichiraku-Ramen—when he paused and gave Kakashi a disapproving look.

Kakashi looked back wordlessly, without hinting anything.

And, finally, Iruka left, the door closing behind him. And as soon as he did, Kakashi turned off the stove in which Naruto was cooking ramen earlier, forgotten through everything that has happened so far.

"What was _that_ all about?" Kiba asked. "You whispering to that Chunin and all."

"We needed Naruto out of the house," Kakashi explained.

"Why?" Kiba questioned, puzzled. "Are we going to have a secret meeting all about Naruto?"

"Precisely."**

* * *

****A/N: **

**Princess Malika: I feel bad… this is our _second_ _shortest chapter_! But I like throwing suspicion on Naruto, who just _might_ be the one behind all of this! Heh-heh… And the next chapter is all about bashing and trashing Naruto (at least, that's what _some_ people will do)! Yes, I'm a Naruto fan, but it's funny how Naruto is—so far—always caught red-handed!**

**Craftygirl: I think Iruka should just drop the sympathy act and do what everyone else is doing by blaming Naruto! Ha-ha. Just kidding. Someone needs to support Naruto. Btw, I just thought the ending was really funny. As random as this sounds, it reminds me of "The Lion King" when the hyena asks Scar: "What we gonna do? Kill Mufasa (sp)?" And then Scar goes, "Precisely" before he sings "Be Prepared." LOL. I know. Random. P**

**Princess Malika: OK, now that you mention it, it IS a LOL thing… and I never even though of it when I wrote it!**


	9. Chapter 9: Gathering

**A/N: We apologize for the EXTREMELY long update, but we hope you'll forgive us after reading our latest update **

* * *

Chapter Nine: Gathering

"WE ARE?!" Kiba repeated incredulously. "Cool!"

"Call it what you want, but this is strictly business," Kakashi told him bluntly, and then took a seat at the table. "We need everyone in this room. Do you two think you can get everyone?"

Kiba shrugged, "Sure." He walked out of the kitchen and toward the bathroom. _I'm pretty sure Hinata was working in here with Naruto._

As Kiba left, Sasuke hesitated. "Uh, there's just one problem…"

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "And? That is?" he prompted.

"Sakura's sort of…sick," Sasuke finished at last, lowering his voice. "And I'm not sure why."

"Sick?" Kakashi repeated, a bit surprised. _That's odd. She was just fine yesterday… Maybe it's got something to do with eating Naruto's food… I do remember having some mild headaches earlier…_

Sasuke took Kakashi's silence as a moment to cut in. "She's in the bedroom right now," he said, gesturing with a look over his shoulder, "Should I go get her? I'm sure she's fine—"

"Nah, there's no need," Kakashi interrupted, "You can just fill her in later."

Sasuke nodded, "Got it."

Kakashi then glanced toward the bathroom, but didn't see anyone emerging from the room. _What's taking Kiba so long? As he has to do is tell Hinata we're meeting out in the kitchen._

An impatient voice invaded his thoughts. "Hey, have you forgotten about me?!"

Sasuke—knowing who it was—didn't even bother to acknowledge him. Kakashi, on the other hand, replied, "We'll get to you in a minute," before strolling over to the bathroom.

Gaara seethed, loathing to be disregarded so easily.

"A minute?" Gaara nearly bellowed, his eyes frightfully glaring, as ever. "This—_disease_—has been going for who knows _how_ long, and the longer we wait, then this might get worse! I want my Shukaku back!"

While Kakashi ignored Gaara, doing—_whatever_ he was doing in the bathroom, Sasuke dryly responded, "Don't think you're the _only_ one with the same problem."

"What are you talking about? You don't have the powers I once had, and you never _will_, either."

Glowering heatedly at Gaara, Sasuke tersely said, "Come again?"

"I defeated you once, and I still can…" Gaara replied calmly, though a twinge of haughtiness was prevalent in his voice.

"Well, without your _demon_—or whatever it is—you don't stand a chance against me!" Sasuke countered. "Back at the Chunin Exams, _you_ were completely helpless under _my_ power." A scene of Sasuke landing his _chidori _on Gaara straight-on flashed in Sasuke's mind, and he smiled smugly.

Gaara couldn't take it anymore. He lunged for Sasuke. "WHY YOU!"

Sasuke—having acquired a speed like that of Rock Lee's—was easily able to dodge it. He sneered, "Heh. Just as I thought; you're too slow."

Gaara scowled. He was furious! But within himself, he felt more defenseless than rage. He—once the most feared by everyone who'd met him—was now powerless for all to torment.

And even though everyone had lost their ninjutsu, they had their taijutsu.

Gaara did not.

"_The _smell_!" _Kakashi silently exclaimed, almost passing out himself.

_No wonder both Hinata and Kiba fainted. _

Fortunately, Kakashi could withstand the smell long enough before he hastily yanked the two Genin out, plopped them onto the couch, speedily placed several scented candles around the bathroom to counter the sordid stench, and then rapidly closed the door shut.

_Now for Kiba and Hinata._

Sasuke glanced over at the two of them, temporarily forgetting all about his dispute with Gaara. "What happened to them?" he asked curiously.

"Nothing much," Kakashi answered, "Just a little incident in the bathroom." He walked over to the sink, filled a nearby bucket with water, and then dumped it on Kiba and Hinata.

Kiba bolted up immediately. "YOW! That's cold!" He shook off the water in his hair, and Akamaru did the same. Kiba then turned to see Kakashi standing over him with the bucket. "Hey! What was that all about?"

"I had to wake you up _somehow_," Kakashi reasoned.

While Kiba was glaring at Kakashi, Hinata slowly came to as she sat up straight and blinked her eyes in confusion. "W-what just happened? I remember searching in the bathroom, until…" She scowled, and then glanced around her. She saw Kiba, Kakashi, Sasuke, Gaara…

"Hey, w-where's Naruto?" she asked quietly.

Kakashi set the bucket aside. "That's the thing; I had Iruka take him out for ramen so he wouldn't have be present when we discuss our…" He lowered his voice. "..._Suspicions_…"

Both Sasuke and Gaara took that as their cue, and sat on another couch adjacent to Kiba's and Hinata's.

Hinata was alarmed. "S-suspicions?" she repeated in surprise.

Kakashi nodded.

_What "suspicions" do you have of Naruto?!_ Hinata wanted to say, but decided to remain silent, as she didn't want to jump to conclusions. _I'll hear what this Jonin has to say first. _

"Okay," Kakashi began, "I saw—"

"Hold your thought for a moment," Kiba interrupted. "Lemee grab some grub first. I'm _starving_!"

"Woof!" Akamaru barked in agreement.

"But—" Sasuke began in protest, only to get interrupted by a thunderous stomach growling…

His.

_Why do I have to be hungry _now Sasuke asked himself, humiliated by his hunger.

"See? What did I tell ya? Let's eat!" Kiba concluded before dashing into the kitchen.

While everyone was curious to learn what Kakashi was about to inform him or her, they were _starving_! So they all hungrily followed Kiba into the kitchen.

Now in the kitchen, Kiba briskly opened the cupboards, but only to be greeted by shelves and shelves of cup noodles. "Man! Doesn't Naruto eat anything _besides_ ramen?" he complained.

Sasuke opened the refrigerator, but only found a carton of milk…_expired_ milk. "There's only bad milk here," he announced monotonously.

Kiba sighed. "Maybe we should just whip ourselves up some ramen," he decided, "Right now, I'd eat almost anything." He reached for the lowest shelf and pulled out a styrofoam cup of miso pork ramen.

But Kakashi stopped him. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," he advised, "Remember what happened the _last_ time we ate Naruto's food?"

"I didn't eat anything, but look what happened to me," Gaara declared angrily, his arms crossed. "All I had was a glass of water."

"Really? The water too?" Kakashi repeated, surprised.

In the meantime, Kiba placed the cup noodles back on the shelf and shut the cupboard behind him. "Well, then what are we supposed to eat?" he asked impatiently.

Kakashi thought for a moment. "Maybe you can go out and buy back some food for all of us," he suggested, "We'll let you know what happens later." He then glanced at Hinata, whom he knew probably wouldn't like how they would break down on Naruto. "You could go with him, if you'd like."

Hinata shook her head. "N-no thanks. I-I want to stay…" _I have to know what they suspect of Naruto._

Kakashi shrugged. "Okay, suit yourself."

Kiba looked at Hinata. "Are you sure?" he asked, to which she managed a slight nod. "Okay then, I'll get us some sushi or something!" And with that, Kiba was out the door with Akamaru.

Voices… that's what Sakura heard aplenty of times, but while she knew they were all chatting, she couldn't place _who_ was talking.

And _what_ they were talking about. _And the only way to figure _that_ out is to join them outside. _

She unhurriedly got up, but when she did, another wave of wooziness pelted her. Her knees wobbled, but—securely gripping the mattress—she held her ground.

_C'mon. You're not that weak girl anymore. You're not even that sick! You're just slightly dizzy. You can handle it. Just take a few steps, open the door, take a few more steps, and lie on the couch._

It was harder than she thought. With each step she took, she felt feebler than before. With each step she took, she felt a rush of nausea overwhelm her. In fact, her hand was only a few centimeters from the door handle when she started swaying, her vision darkening.

_Not yet! You can't faint now! You need to be strong! You can't show everyone that you're weak, that you'd reverted back to your old self. Be strong. Be strong for them all. _

Although while she said that, the only person that came into her mind was Sasuke. And with that motivation, she had gathered enough energy to open the door.

Sasuke heard the slight sound of an opening door, and was surprised to see that is was coming from the bedroom. Yet he even more shocked to see that Sakura was coming from the room, looking more flushed than ever. She hadn't even completely stepped outside of the door before she started to collapse from fatigue.

Sasuke's eyes dilated in surprise, but he was able to break her fall just before she hit the ground. "Sakura, what are you doing up right now?" he whispered, his voice tense as he helped her to her feet, "You should stay in bed and rest."

Though he was scolding her, Sakura didn't mind. What mattered to her—and even surprised her—was how much Sasuke was actually caring for her, something he rarely does. Especially in front of others.

Yet Sakura couldn't think like that now—she could barely keep herself from passing out. "I…I'm through with resting," she replied at last, "And even if you send me back…I'll find a way to get out of there myself…"

Sasuke did a double-take on Sakura. _Something's different about her…_

Kakashi eyed Sakura suspiciously, too, but then said, "Why don't you help her to the couch, Sasuke? She can take part in this meeting if she wants to."

Sasuke couldn't believe Kakashi. _What?! Are you crazy?! She could collapse again! _"But—"

"Sasuke…_please_…" Sakura pressed, her voice barely above a whisper.

Sasuke scowled, but eventually agreed. "Alright…" he decided at last, uncertainty present in his voice. However, he still complied, and helped Sakura to the couch.

"Thanks," Sakura muttered softly, a small smile on her face. Sasuke took a seat next to her.

"Okay, can we just get on with the meeting now? This is a waste of my time," Gaara interrupted impatiently.

Hinata nodded, and Kakashi agreed, "Yeah, sorry for the wait, but I think we've taken care of everything now." He smiled sheepishly.

_Finally! _Gaara said to himself, irked for the enormous amount of time it took for just this meeting to _start_.

And not wanting to waste another second—as Naruto (and Iruka)—could return at any minute, Kakashi began immediately: "Iruka and I found a strange black powder at the countertop where Naruto was cooking."

…_Black… powder? _Sasuke said to himself, never hearing of such a thing.

"Are you sure it wasn't some type of ingredient?" Sakura questioned, to which Kakashi shook his head and answered, "It was nothing Iruka nor I have ever encountered before, so we were planning to notify you all and examine it together."

"But…?" Gaara impatiently said, wondering what was the _point_ of this seemingly irrelevant story.

"But then you showed up."

Even though Kakashi's tone held no trace of aggravation, Gaara could feel the others' frustrating stares piercing through him, as if they were almost _blaming_ him for simply _arriving_!

"And after a little chat," Kakashi continued, which he'd instantly gotten back everyone's attention the moment he'd commenced, "Iruka and I returned… and the black powder was gone."

Everyone gaped at Kakashi; his or her eyes wide open.

But as Sasuke was eager for some information, his shocked look didn't last long. "What happened?"

This time, instead of instantaneously starting, Kakashi hesitated. _If I tell them what I saw—which I don't even have enough proof of, they might either not believe me… or use this newfound information to fuel their fury on Naruto. And if they do that, then—if Naruto's innocent, I'd—_

"Are you going to tell us what happened or what?" Gaara impatiently snapped (too frustrated and furious to recall that he too witnessed the same thing Kakashi did).

Swiftly, Kakashi made up his mind. "I saw Naruto with a cloth in his hands."

There was a slight moment of stunned silence before Gaara stated, "Then all of this _is_ Naruto's fault…"

"Are you _sure_ it was Naruto that wiped the black powder away?" Sakura asked Kakashi, sounding as if she believed Naruto would _never_ do such a thing, yet her voice gave away the hint of her own increasing doubts.

"Or if Naruto was just cleaning something up?" Sakura added.

Kakashi: "No, I'm _not_ certain if it was Naruto wiping away the black powder or not—or if he was simply cleaning something up. But I _do_ know that—before Iruka and I went outside—the black powder was there, and—when we'd returned—it wasn't."

"And Naruto was the one with the cloth in his hands," Gaara concluded before adding—almost disdainfully—"How could it _not_ be Naruto?"

* * *

**A/N: **

Princess Malika: Whoa, I just realized this chapter has TONS of filler in it! So I apologize if the main point (of the chapter) took a bit longer to reach to (with the Gaara and Sasuke argument, finding Hinata and Kiba, Kiba wanting food, and with the Sakura thing). Oh well, hope you readers are enjoying it so far! And the best part is yet to come (although not in the next chapter)!

Craftygirl: Oh, yeah! Sasuke and Sakura had another lovely moment! Cute! But I must admit, that was an abrupt ending for that last chapter…


	10. Chapter 10: Pursuit

**A/N: Please don't hate us for taking awhile to update, but love us that you readers finally have a chapter to read **

**And please R&R. We'll feel unloved if you don't...**

**PS: And due to saving difficulities, OoOoOoOoOoO will represent a shift in the scene. **

* * *

Chapter Ten: Pursuit 

"I-it c-c-can't be Naruto! It just can't!"

Everyone was stunned at the stammering—yet assured—voice that abruptly spoke.

Hinata's. She'd stood up, her visage a mixture of fury and shock.

_How could they so quickly blame Naruto? _She said to herself, a bit irritated.

But as soon as she'd declared her strongly held opinion, she somewhat regretted her audacious outburst. She wasn't used to being so assertive, but she meant what she'd said.

Kakashi spoke before a disagreement ensured. "We never agreed it was Naruto for certain, Hinata."

_But while there's no clear-cut proof that it was Naruto, the evidence is stacked against him,_ Kakashi said to himself, adding, _and she's got to realize that._

"But…" Kakashi continued aloud, "It's a possibility that—"

"Y-you're wrong," Hinata interrupted, her tone more confident than before. "Naruto would never do such a thing."

"How do _you_ know?"

Hinata was a bit taken back with Gaara's tone of voice.

"W-what do you mean?" Hinata hesitantly asked.

Almost impatiently, Gaara pointed out, "You weren't there. Nobody was, in fact. So how can anybody be sure that it _wasn't_ Naruto? Sure, it also means that it couldn't have been Naruto. But, then again, it means that it _could've_ been Naruto."

_H-he sounds almost like cousin Neji when he spoke to me at the Chunin Exams, _Hinata silently said to herself, almost reverting back to her typical timid self. _M-maybe he's right… maybe—at least by accident—Naruto might've—_

Unpredictably, Hinata shook her head, as if to clear her unfaithful thoughts.

"Y-you may be right," Hinata steadfastly began, "But unless there's an eyewitness that actually saw Naruto wiping away that powder thing, I'll keep on believing that Naruto's innocent."

Gaara could only scoff. "Feh. You're wasting your time," he muttered.

"Alright…" Kakashi stated, trying to change the subject. He turned to face Sasuke. "You've been pretty quiet, Sasuke. What's on your mind right now?"

"Right now? …Well, it sounds a lot like Naruto to me…" Sasuke replied. "Like what Gaara said, I don't see any way out of it."

Kakashi thought for a moment. "I see…" _But how will we know for sure?_

"Don't tell me that you all agree with Gaara…" Sakura stated, a bit reluctant, yet—at the same time—a bit dismayed at their reasoning.

Sasuke stared at Sakura for a few moments before he responded to her statement. "Gaara makes sense. Kakashi himself even saw Naruto do it."

"Not _every_thing," Sakura reminded.

"But enough."

Sasuke's reply was so final; Sakura didn't know what to say next.

_There doesn't seem to be any particular motive for Naruto to do this sort of thing, _Sakura said to herself, then added,_ And besides that, Naruto doesn't have the brains to pull this sort of thing off. But then again, everyone _does_ have a point… _

Hinata didn't like where this conversation was going. _I have to do something… something that'll make Naruto innocent again to everyone else. _

"L-let's search the place one more time," Hinata suggested.

"We did," Sasuke replied—almost impatiently. "And we didn't find anything."

"So the point of another search could be a waste of time," Gaara said before he added, "I say we confront Naruto."

"B-but once more wouldn't hurt…" Hinata spoke, her confidence diminishing as she felt the pressure of everyone ganging up on her.

To everyone's surprise, Kakashi supported Hinata by saying, "She's right. Another look around wouldn't hurt. And it's been proven that you notice more the second time around."

OoOoOoOoOoO

"Thanks for the ramen, Iruka-sensei," Naruto cheerfully said after he and Iruka had eaten.

"No problem," Iruka replied with a broad smile—and not because Naruto was so grateful and polite.

But because Naruto—for once today—seemed happy.

_And if Naruto's happy, then I'm happy, _Iruka said to himself before he turned to see Naruto's wide grin once more.

And was stunned to see that Naruto wasn't grinning anymore.

"Naruto?"

Naruto's eyes were downcast, not facing Iruka, which made Iruka worried.

But before Iruka could ask Naruto what was troubling him or make an attempt to cheer him up, Naruto spoke. "Why does everyone hate me?"

Surprised at Naruto's statement, Iruka responded, "Nobody hates you, Naruto. They're just mad that they'd lost their abilities, which are what makes them unique."

"Then why does everyone blame it on me?"

Iruka was silent for a moment, not knowing how to answer that. Because, truth was, practically everyone _did_ blame this peculiar incident on Naruto.

And Iruka didn't want to tell Naruto _that_.

Naruto took Iruka's pause to continue. "Even if the facts were stacked against me—which I know they are… why doesn't anyone _believe_ me?"

"I believe you," Iruka said, and he sincerely meant it, too.

As Naruto looked at Iruka, as if skeptical, Iruka added, "No matter what anyone says, I know that you're innocent, and I believe it when you say so. And do you know what else? A lot of other people think that, too, and that's why they're working so hard to clear your name."

Naruto tilted his head downward to hide his tears—not because he was sad, but because he was glad that Iruka, that _someone_, believed in him.

_But I wished that Sakura, Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke, and everyone else would believe in me, too…_ Naruto added to himself, which—this depressing thought—brought him down once more, and almost overwhelmed him that he abruptly got out of his chair and began walking away.

"Naruto," Iruka began, starting to go after him when he stopped himself, realizing, _Maybe Naruto needs some time alone._

So, as Iruka reluctantly watched Naruto walk further and further away… _I hope that Naruto finds that confidence in himself like he usually does._

_Before this ordeal began, and wrecked it._

OoOoOoOoOoO

As Kiba trudged back towards Naruto's apartment, he drew in a breath of the strong scent coming from the bagfuls of sushi. "Man! That sure smells good, doesn't it, Akamaru?" Kiba asked his dog, who barked in agreement.

"Can't wait till we get back there and see the look on everyone's faces when they see all this food!" Kiba smiled triumphantly, a huge grin on his face. "Ha! This is gonna be great!"

He then proceeded up the steps of Naruto's apartment and swung the door open. "Hey, everybody!" Kiba hollered, "Guess who's back with some food?!—"

Kiba's voice suddenly trailed off as he noticed something very wrong. "N-Naruto? What are you doing here?!" His voice shifted from curious to accusing. _I-I thought he was with Iruka-sensei! He's not supposed to be here—I thought the other guys would have made sure of that! But where the heck are they?! _

Naruto turned to face Kiba, as if suddenly aware of his of presence. It was then that Kiba noticed a set of filled glasses before him…

And a mysterious blue vial in his hand.

Kiba's eyes widened in shock. "Hey! Hold on a sec! Just what do you think you're doing?!" Instinctively, he lunged forward to tackle Naruto, but before he could, Naruto disappeared in a puff of smoke, causing Kiba to fall flat on his face as his dog went flying across the floor.

Kiba gritted his teeth in anger. "Aargh! Darn it!"

OoOoOoOoOoO

_Poof!_ A puff of pale smoke appeared before Gaara, who was busy searching outside Naruto's apartment.

Through the smoke, Gaara caught a bright flash of orange. "Naruto?!" Gaara exclaimed furiously. Yet the moment he shouted his name, Naruto made a mad dash away from Gaara.

"QUIT MESSING AROUND! I'M NOT LETTING YOU GET AWAY AGAIN!" Gaara started to pursue Naruto, but after a few steps, his heavy gourd weighed him down, and…

_Oof!_ Well, so much for that.

Meanwhile, Gaara's loud voice had alerted Kakashi, who was on the roof of the apartment. _Did he just say Naruto? _Kakashi glanced down from the roof, and was surprised to see Naruto frantically speeding away from the apartment. _Naruto?! What's he doing here?! Isn't he— _Kakashi's eyes dilated as he quickly turned around to face the Ichiraku. To his horror, what he saw made his blood run cold.

Yeah, Iruka was there, alright, but Naruto wasn't!

Kakashi turned back toward the front of the apartment. _Naruto's still running… I've got to get to him fast! _So, he jumped off rooftop and chased after him.

OoOoOoOoOoO

"So, tell me again, Ino: _why_ are we going back to Naruto's place?" Shikamaru asked, his voice dull and languid as he trailed behind Ino, who was pulling him forward by the wrist. "This is such a drag."

"Oh, quit complaining, Shikamaru!" Ino retorted. "We've got nothing else to do! And besides, if there's anyone who's gonna prove Naruto's guilty, then it's gonna be me. Ya got that?!"

"What? I thought you were over that already—" Shikamaru began, until Ino interrupted him.

Dropping his wrist, Ino spun around and glared at him. "Are you taking his side again?! In case you've forgotten, I still haven't gotten that apology from you!"

Shikamaru scoffed. "I'm just saying that it's not fair to simply rule out Naruto when there's no proof against him. That's all."

"Well, there you have it," Ino stated, crossing her arms. "That's exactly why we're going to go back there: to prove that he's guilty. I already told you that, Shikamaru! So, are you with me or not?"

Shikamaru sighed. _What other choice do I have left? If I object, then she's just going to bug me about it until I take her side… What a pain…_ "Yeah, yeah. I guess I'm going then…"

Ino smiled triumphantly, and then turned around back towards Naruto's apartment…only to be rammed by Naruto himself! The force of the impact pushed Ino back against Shikamaru, and they both skidded across the dirt floor.

Shikamaru struggled to pull himself to his feet. "Ino…are you alright?"

Ino forced herself to her knees. "Yeah, I'm fine. But—" She glanced up and glared at Naruto, who had fallen flat on his rear. "You! You better watch where you're going! I'm onto you, so don't push it!"

Shikamaru averted his eyes at Naruto. _Why's he running so fast? It's almost as if he's running for his life or something…_

It was then that Shikamaru noticed Naruto turn his head behind him, and then in the next second, disappeared in an instant.

Which revealed Kakashi only a few meters behind him.

The Jonin skidded to a stop. _Darn it! He got away! _

Shikamaru's eyes widened in surprise. "Hold it! What's going on here! Why are you chasing Naruto? And why was he able to use ninjutsu just now?!"

Then it hit Ino. She gasped, and then turned to face Shikamaru, "Hey, you're right! That _was_ ninjutsu just now! …Well, then I was right all along! He _is_ the culprit! And _there's_ your proof!"

* * *

**A/N:**

Craftygirl: Yeah! Now we're getting somewhere! That last chapter was definitely one of our best! And that was probably the longest part I've wrote—from Kiba's reappearance right until the very end! My gosh! I feel proud :)

Princess Malika: Yes, it's true; _now_ the story's moving along. And kudos for Craftygirl, who _finally_ wrote a lot. As for Naruto… I hate to say this, but the next chapter will be just HORRIBLE for him! Tear, tear… TT


	11. Chapter 11: Betrayal

Chapter Eleven: Betrayal 

"Aargh! Darn it!"

"K-Kiba?" Hinata questioned uncertainly after she thought she'd heard him slightly swear.

Sasuke and Sakura, who were also in the same room—the bedroom—as Hinata also heard Kiba. So they all went into the kitchen to Kiba.

There, they saw Kiba picking himself up, his face frustrated as Akamaru dashed back to Kiba and then leapt onto Kiba's head.

The food splattered not only all over the floor, but all over Kiba as well.

"W-what happened, Kiba?" Hinata asked.

"Naruto…" Kiba growled, in which Akamaru barked in agreement.

"N-Naruto?" Hinata repeated, surprised. "W-what does Naruto have to do with—?"

"I _saw_ him!" Kiba interrupted with a livid near roar. "He was _here_!"

"B-but t-that's n-not possible…" Hinata responded in disbelief. "N-Naruto was with Iruka-sensei."

"But I _know_ what I saw!!"

_They both have a point,_ Sakura said to herself with concern. _And that's what bothers me. They can't _both_ be right… _

Sasuke, who was ignoring the pointless argument, was meticulously searching the cluttered floor until he found what he was looking for.

Sakura, who suddenly noticed what Sasuke was doing, asked, "What are you looking for?"

"Kiba may be right," Sasuke said after he'd picked something from the floor and stood up.

And then he showed them a broken blue vial with slight traces of leftover black powder.

"Yeah! That's exactly what I saw Naruto holding onto just now!" Kiba exclaimed fervently. "If I'm correct, I'll bet he added whatever it was into those cups over there!" He pointed to the glasses on the counter. Six of them in all.

Hinata gasped in horror. _No…it can't be…not Naruto…_

Sasuke ran his fingers along the blue vial, and inspected the traces of black powder. "This must be the black powder Kakashi was talking about," he remarked. "The one that must have been added to the food and water yesterday." He then glanced at the glasses on the table. "Six glasses, eh? One for each of us…" He narrowed his eyes. "Kakashi, Gaara, and the four of us… If I didn't know any better, I'd say he was trying to mess with us again."

A moment of silence passed over the Genin before Sakura spoke up: "But then…where's Naruto now?"

"How could I forget? The little sneak disappeared on me the moment I tried tackling him," Kiba recalled, irritation present in his voice.

"Sounds like ninjutsu to me," Sasuke observed. _But that's odd… I thought Naruto couldn't do his Shadow Clone Jutsu this morning…unless… _

"Hold it!" Sakura blurted, as if reading Sasuke's mind. "How's that possible? I thought Naruto was affected, too!" She then stopped herself. "You don't think…that Naruto was faking it, do you?"

She glanced up at everyone. Kiba looked like he was ready to kill someone. Hinata just remained silent and looked to the floor. And Sasuke wore a scowl on his face.

"There's no way out of it," Sasuke declared in a low voice. "And now we know for sure…"

"No, we don't," Hinata objected, her tone assertive, for once. "Naruto was with Iruka-sensei."

Glaring at his traitorous teammate, Kiba snapped, "I _KNOW_ WHAT I SAW!!"

"We can't really prove that until Iruka returns," Sasuke pointed out before he added, "For now, we can show this to Kakashi for confirmation."

"What's there to confirm?" Kiba questioned, annoyed. "I _saw_ Naruto with that vial. And we _know_ that Kakashi said it was the black powder that took away our ninjutsu."

"He said it wasn't certain," Hinata reminded her teammate, who was annoying her everytime he badmouthed her Naruto-kun.

"But—"

"Let's just ask Kakashi-sensei," Sakura firmly stated, weary of all the ongoing disputes, before heading out the door.

A few minutes later…

"He's not on the roof," Sakura disappointedly said after she and the rest of the group went onto the rooftop.

"But there's Gaara," Hinata said, gesturing to the redhead whose face was still stuck in the sand due to the heaviness of his gourd.

Sasuke couldn't help but smirk. "Not so high and mighty now, is he?"

"SHUT UP! I heard that!" Gaara barked through a muffled (yet still audible) grumble.

Sakura disregarded both of them and pointed out in the distance. "Hey! Isn't that Kakashi-sensei? And…" She narrowed her eyes. "Is that _Ino and Shikamaru_?! What are they doing?—"

Yet before Sakura could finish, Kiba had already taken off on all fours.

"Never mind that," Sasuke said curtly, "Let's just show Kakashi what we found." And then he took off toward Kiba.

Sakura nodded, trailing after Sasuke.

_I guess I'd better follow them…_ Hinata decided, and was then about to run off, too. That is…until Gaara interrupted her.

"Hey, don't just leave me here! HELP ME UP RIGHT NOW!" Gaara demanded fiercely.

Hinata—now frightened by this sand creep—had no choice but to listen to him. "Um, y-yeah. Of course." She then grabbed onto his hand and pulled him up to his feet.

So now that that was taken care of, the Genin quickly caught up to Kakashi…except Gaara.

Of course, after his little "incident," Gaara didn't want to fall all over again, so he decided to take it _slow_…one small step at a time.

But everyone else had no time to wait for him, and Sasuke immediately began telling Kakashi of what they'd found. "This vial was dropped on the floor when—"

"HEY!"

Everyone turned around to see Gaara two blocks away. "YOU BETTER NOT BE SAYING ANYTHING WITHOUT ME! WHEN I GET MY NINJUTSU BACK, I'LL SAND-COFFIN ALL OF YOU! JUST YOU WAIT!"

Everyone stared at Gaara for a moment before Kakashi turned back to Sasuke and prodded him to continue. "As you were saying?"

"When Naruto was interrupted by Kiba."

_They're _ignoring_ me! _Gaara scowled as he watched everyone converse, continuing on as if he wasn't a threat to them. _I _never_ was ignored! _

Then, Gaara realized something… _They never ignored me till I lost my abilities… _

_Guess I'm not so special anymore… _

Meanwhile, as Gaara gradually strolled towards them, lost in his miserable thoughts, Kiba decided to take over the storytelling.

"Hey!" he began. "_I_ was the one who saw it all, so I should be the one to _tell_ all."

Sasuke glowered heatedly at the brash Kiba, but remained silent as Kiba took off from there.

"So, I was done getting the food and arrived at the apartment when I saw Naruto, with the vial in his hand. Being the quick-thinking guy I am, I tackled him. But, surprisingly, Naruto disappeared."

"Is that how you got the food all over you? By being 'the quick-thinking guy' you are?" Sasuke commented with a sneer, getting Kiba back from interrupting him through humiliation.

Kiba, immediately red-faced, hastily brushed any piece of food still on him.

Meanwhile, Sasuke finished off where Kiba left off. "Kiba probably meant 'surprisingly' because Naruto wasn't supposed to be able to do any ninjutsu, but he did. What's more, the vial held the black powder—the same black powder that Kakashi found earlier."

Saying this, Sasuke handed the shattered vial with the small bits of black powder to Kakashi.

He examined the powder. "There's no mistaking it," Kakashi stated firmly, "This is the exact same powder Iruka and I found in the kitchen earlier. But that's not all…"

"What?"

"When I was on the roof," Kakashi continued, "I saw Naruto running away from the apartment. I then glanced at the Ichiraku, and found that Naruto wasn't there, and yet…Iruka was—"

Hinata couldn't believe it. "M-maybe Naruto just had to excuse himself for a little while…" she offered timidly, trying to sound assertive, but rather more in an attempt to convince herself. After all, Naruto's being with Iruka was the last thread of hope she'd held onto in order to believe that Naruto was innocent, and now…she didn't know what to believe.

"What? To go contaminate our drinks all over again?" Sasuke coldly finished for her.

It was then Kakashi who spoke: "Look, I know you want to believe in Naruto—we all do—but…" He sighed. "…I think it's pretty clear."

Hinata bit her lower lip, trying desperately not to cry.

"…What's more is that I can confirm Naruto's use of ninjutsu…" Kakashi went on. "Shikamaru, Ino, and I all saw him disappear earlier."

Kiba nudged his teammate. "See? I told you I knew what I saw," he said triumphantly.

"Ha! I knew it was Naruto!" Ino suddenly blurted. "You guys shouldn't have doubted me from the start! I told you so!"

Shikamaru was through with Ino's bragging. "Okay. But so what if it's Naruto? Big deal. What are we gonna do now? If he's not with Iruka-sensei, we don't even know where he is!"

_If I could use my summoning jutsu, finding Naruto would be easy… But I guess we'll just have to do it the old-fashioned way…_ "We'll split up and track him down," Kakashi decided.

Shikamaru sighed in irritation. "Ugh. I knew it'd come to this. Just what did I get myself into?"

"What? Why do we have to do this?!" Ino demanded. "Can't you guys just dispatch ANBU to hunt him down? Why do we have to get involved? He could be anywhere!"

"Did you forget?" Kiba began with an obvious hint of haughtiness, "With my super sharp nose, I can find Naruto even if he's _more_ than a mile away."

Tired of Kiba's supercilious attitude, Ino dryly reminded him, "Oh yeah? Then what about the _rest_ of us?"

"Don't ask me; I dunno. And besides, it's _your_ problem. Figure it out yourself."

Backing Ino up, Shikamaru told Kiba, "Since we're going to work together, you might as well give a suggestion that we _all_ can apply to ourselves."

"Hey, I'm not the genius here—I'll admit it. But _you_ are, so _you_ come up with something."

_But coming up with something is such a drag, _Shikamaru said to himself, sighing, and so turned to the other geniuses he knew of. "Sasuke? Kakashi-sensei? Any ideas?"

Before either of them could respond, Ino insisted, "Really, let's just get ANBU to do their job. Besides, now that we know what Naruto's capable of, how dangerous he is, ANBU can—"

"What did you say about Naruto?"

It was Iruka.

Ino decided to keep her mouth shut for once, and thus, allowed Kakashi to speak. "What we're saying is that we now have evidence stacked against Naruto…" he began, trying to lay it on as gently as possible.

Iruka didn't want to start on this again. "_Okay_. And what evidence could that be? I'm serious, Kakashi; I think you're jumping to conclusions."

"Still don't believe me? Well, that a look at this." Kakashi held out the shattered blue vial. "Remember the black powder we found in the kitchen earlier? This vial was filled with it, and traces of it are still all over it."

Iruka frowned. "And what's that got to do with Naruto?"

Kakashi glanced in Kiba's direction. "According to Kiba, this blue vial was in Naruto's hand. He tried to tackle Naruto, but then Naruto disappeared… Are you starting to get the picture? The only way Naruto could have disappeared is if he used some type of ninjutsu. I saw it myself."

Iruka backed away tentatively. "No. You're wrong about Naruto. He-he couldn't have…"

Kakashi sighed. "I know how you feel about Naruto, but regardless, would you say that Naruto was with you the _whole_ time when you two were at the Ichiraku?"

Iruka just stared at Kakashi in horror. He couldn't argue with that, and he knew it, too. Naruto _had_ excused himself, and had never returned. He hung his head in despair. "N-Naruto had excused himself from the Ichiraku. I waited for him to return, but he didn't. So I-I thought he'd gone back to his apartment, but…I guess not."

"I-Iruka-sensei, w-what are you saying?"

It was Naruto, and by the stunned, wounded expression on his face…

He heard enough of the conversation to know the direction that Iruka was heading.

_Why did he have to come? Especially now… _Hinata worriedly began to herself, panicking. _Now that… when he hears that… _

Hinata couldn't even bring herself to even _think_ it. All she wanted was for her Naruto-kun to be as far away from here as possible, so that he wouldn't hear what he was going to hear next.

As nobody else was willing to speak, and as Naruto was looking at Iruka for answers, for some sort of hope, Iruka—even though it was the furthest thing he wanted to do at the moment—decided to answer Naruto.

"I-I'm s-saying," Iruka stuttered, knowing the very words he'd say would hurt Naruto more than anything else in the world, "That… I don't know what to believe in anymore."

Naruto gaped at his closest sensei, the closest person he had as a parent, his father figure, in devastation.

Iruka hurriedly turned his head away, the anguish written all over Naruto's face stabbing in his chest.

Grasping for some hope—_any_ hope left, Naruto turned to Sakura. _Maybe she'll believe me. She just _gotta_! _

But as soon as he did, he knew that she couldn't.

She couldn't even _face_ him!

Just like Iruka.

"Kakashi-sensei? Shikamaru? Sasuke?"

They too averted their eyes from him.

"…Hinata?"

Ohh, she so wanted to say something, _any_thing, really, in desperation to cheer her poor Naruto-kun up. But his hurt-filled face and pain-stricken tone wounded her as well. What's more, as soon as Naruto had said her name, as soon as his eyes landed on hers…

She panicked, and—just like everyone else—rapidly turned her head in the other direction.

Naruto took Hinata's averting of her eyes as a sign: _…Even she doesn't believe in me… _

And Naruto didn't dare look to Ino and Kiba for belief, as he could feel the lethal glare from them.

Turning back to Iruka, Naruto recalled the conversation he had with his sensei…

"_Why does everyone hate me?"_

"_Nobody hates you, Naruto. They're just mad that they'd lost their abilities, which are what makes them unique." _

"Then why does everyone blame it on me?"

_Even if the facts were stacked against me—which I know they are… why doesn't anyone believe me?"_

"_I believe you."_

_No matter what anyone says, I know that you're innocent, and I believe it when you say so. And do you know what else? A lot of other people think that, too, and that's why they're working so hard to clear your name."_

Now, the memory left a bitter feeling in Naruto, and so he started to say to Iruka in a deathly quiet voice, "So… everything you said to me at the Ichiraku's… was a lie."

"N-no! That wasn't—!"

"Then why can't you believe in me?"

When Iruka was silent, Naruto turned to everyone else and asked a similar question: "Why can't _any_ of you believe in me?"

When nobody could answer his question…

_I'm not gonna take this. If they don't believe me, if they don't want me around, then I'm outta here._

To everyone, Naruto unexpectedly ran.

"Naruto—" Iruka began, making a movement towards Naruto, but someone grabbed onto his shoulder. Iruka turned to see who it was, and it was Kakashi, who shook his head in disagreement.

Iruka yanked his shoulder away from Kakashi in fury, yet went in the opposite way that Naruto had taken. He too was sullen, as he'd knew…

He'd _failed_ Naruto.

_Naruto… _Hinata said to herself, as if beckoning to him, as if he could hear her thought, change his mind, and come back.

But as Hinata watched Naruto run until he'd disappeared from her view, she knew that he wouldn't come back.

That he might _never_ come back.

Which were Naruto's thoughts exactly.

_I'm _never_ coming back here, ever again. _

Iruka had turned against him.

Just like everyone else.

Everyone he wanted most to believe in him…

They couldn't.

_How can I stay in a village that doesn't believe in me?_

That was Naruto's final thoughts before his heart forever hardened.

And he ran as far away from Konoha as possible, not knowing where he was going, but not caring.

As anywhere would be better than the place in which he thought had cared for him.

Meanwhile, Gaara had finally caught up to everyone and—seeing their gloomy faces—asked, "What did I miss?"

* * *

**A/N:**

**Craftygirl:** Wow, Princess Malika. You've really outdone yourself (literally). While I'll admit you certainly did capture the mood in the last scene, it was REALLY long! You didn't even give me any chance to write after Iruka finally knew the truth! -- Oh well, at least I can still laugh at what happened to Gaara! After this fic, you'll never see your "Gaara-kun" the same way again! And stop with the "Naruto-kun!" So annoying!

As for all of you who feel sorry for Naruto, don't worry; the next chapter will definitely be more cheerful and funny as this day finally (and I mean _finally_) comes to a close!

**Princess Malika:** Are you sure Craftygirl? I thought we were going to do one more horrible thing to my poor, poor Naruto-kun… And writing that last scene was HEARTBREAKING for me! My heart and soul both cries out for him… TT Anyways, I DO NOT want to make fun of my Gaara-kun; it just turned up that way, and so now he's the comic relief in the story. But the next chapter will definitely be full of LOL moments (at least, I hope that's the direction we're going on), and it WON'T be due to my Gaara-kun. Plus, dear readers, PLEASE review! We LOVE them—live on them, almost. Whether with praise or constructive criticism, just PLEASE review! And SOMEONE needs to say "Naruto-kun", as everyone else thinks lesser of him.


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